Today we update and reprise two stories that we published about the legal troubles faced by Los Angeles Rapper Drakeo the Ruler, who was born Darrell Caldwell, and who spent over 3 years in an L.A. Jail through one trial and pending a second trial.  In those articles, we explored both the political and cultural dimensions to Drakeo’s case. Since that time Drakeo released a critically acclaimed album recorded over a jail-house phone, and he accepted a plea bargain on a remaining Gang Conspiracy charge. That deal, according to journalist...

This week we launched TWO new series. We continued our coverage of a headline-grabbing L.A. criminal case. We offered a fascinating interview with a man literally born into the struggle for social justice. And we presented another client update from Stanford's Three Strikes Project. Welcome to our summary of the week's events at CrimeStory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. (One quick request: If you like what we are doing on the podcast, please rate, review, follow and share us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.)

This week we began to cover a new high-profile L.A. celebrity criminal prosecution, just as we concluded another Crime Story article and podcast series. Welcome to our summary of the week's events at CrimeStory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. (One quick request: If you like what we are doing on the podcast, please rate, review, follow and share us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.) On Monday, we began a series of articles and podcast episodes examining the criminal legal issues raised by the rape allegations against That...

This week we focused our coverage on the results of Tuesday's election as they related to the criminal legal process in California including pieces on L.A. ballot measures, statewide propositions, criminal judge races and the battle for Los Angeles District Attorney. And we presented another client update from Stanford's Three Strikes Project. Welcome to our summary of the week's events at CrimeStory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. (One quick request: If you like what we are doing on the podcast, please rate, review, follow and share us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.)

As we reported on Wednesday, George Gascón is projected to be the winner over incumbent Jackie Lacey in the intensely-contested race for Los Angeles County District Attorney, holding a 54% to 46% lead. Yesterday, D.A.-elect Gascón held a Zoom press conference to discuss his election and his plans for the D.A.'s office. Below is a link to the KTLA-5 News video of Mr. Gascón's press conference, and below that is Crime Story’s transcription of his remarks. Editor's note: Crime Story was not able to secure a transcript translation of the...

As we reported on Wednesday, George Gascón is projected to be the winner over incumbent Jackie Lacey in the intensely-contested race for Los Angeles County District Attorney, holding a 54% to 46% lead. Yesterday, D.A. Lacey conceded to Mr. Gascón in an emotional, gracious and thoughtful ten minute speech. Below is a link to the KTLA-5 News video of Ms. Lacey's concession, and below that is Crime Story's transcription of her remarks. D.A.-elect Gascon followed Ms. Lacey's remarks with a press conference. We will follow this post with a post covering that press conference.

UPDATED 7:00PM PT, NOV. 4. Early this morning, NBC-LA projected that former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón would win the Los Angeles D.A. Election over incumbent D.A. Jackie Lacey. As of the moment of this publication, Gascón leads Lacey by a bit more than 211,000 votes earning 54% of the ballots counted to Lacey's 46%. Gascón carried the progressive reform mantle in the race, and while Lacey nearly won the election outright in March's primary election — she fell just short of 50% of the vote there — the dynamics of the election changed with 1)...

This week we culminated our coverage of the upcoming Los Angeles District Attorney election, we continued our new Crime Story article and podcast series. We presented another client update from Stanford's Three Strikes Project. Welcome to our summary of the week's events at CrimeStory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. (One quick request: If you like what we are doing on the podcast, please rate, review, follow and share us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.) On Monday and Tuesday, we presented my two-part (here and here) interview...

On today’s podcast we present Part One of my two-part interview with Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey. Ms. Lacey is in the middle of a hotly-contested election race against former San Francisco district attorney George Gascón. Back in March, before the Primary election that sent Ms. Lacey and Mr. Gascón to a run off in the General Election, Molly Miller and I interviewed Mr. Gascón (Part One here and Part Two here) and the other Primary contestant, Rachel Rossi (here). (You can find links to all of our coverage of the...

This week marked the end of one Crime Story series and the beginning of another. Welcome to our summary of the week's events at CrimeStory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. On Monday, we published the final part of Sean Smith's week by week analysis of the news stories aggregated in Crime Story Daily related to COVID-19 and our carceral system. In Part 19, Sean looked at stories from the week of July 19. On Wednesday, we debuted Mongol: The Trial of David Martinez, our exclusive new Crime...

Team Crime Story:This was an extremely busy week for us at CrimeStory.com. Here is a recap of the events of the last seven days. We began the week with Amanda Knox's interview with Ayelet Waldman, an author and prison abolitionist. In their conversation, they discuss Ayelet’s recent piece for The Atlantic entitled “Should I Help Incarcerate the Man Who Tried to Sexually Assault Me? October 6, 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the debut of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This series and its spinoffs...

Andrew Weissmann served as a lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office. His new book Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation gives the only such inside account and explores the prosecutors' key decisions and hurdles, their successes and their failures. According to press notes for the book, "No other account has done that or is in the works." Through a mutual friend, I was able to arrange an interview with Andrew to speak about the book. In an effort to give the conversation maximum exposure, I reached out to Josh Marshall, and...

October 6, 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the debut of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This series and its spinoffs CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and CSI CYBER were enormously successful. But beyond their commercial success, these series have had an impact on the American criminal legal process. Within a few years of the series premiere, a phenomenon emerged among criminal trial juries that came to be known as “the CSI effect.” The journalist and blogger Michael Roberts has defined this as a “belief that forensic science television dramas influence American jurors to want more...

On today’s podcast, we present part 2 of my two-part interview with Carol Mendelsohn, the founding showrunner of the juggernaut CBS crime procedural, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. (You can find part 1 of the interview here.) In this part of the conversation, we discuss the show’s characters, we take a deep dive into one of the iconic episodes of CSI which was directed by Quentin Tarantino, we look at the impact of the show on America’s criminal justice system and Carol reflects on the enormous success of the show and it’s spinoffs. 

On today’s podcast, we present part 1 of my two-part interview with Carol Mendelsohn, the founding showrunner of the juggernaut CBS crime procedural, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In this part of the conversation, Carol and I discuss the forces that shaped her values and influenced her as a storyteller, her entree into the world of television, the evolution of her career, the beginnings of CSI and how the core creative team discovered the show’s identity. One last podcast note, last Tuesday, October 6 marked the 20th Anniversary of the series'...