University of Minnesota Law School
Defense lawyer and professor at the University of Minnesota Law School
PROFILE
JaneAnne Murray
Guest
FROM JaneAnne Murray
To the Point
How Many Innocent Americans Are Sitting in Jail? Local district attorneys get re-elected for putting people in jail. Now some prosecutors are part of a movement to get some inmates out. An Ohio man who spent 39 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit is just one of 125 released last year — a record number of wrongful convictions. It's not just new evidence or witnesses changing their stories — it's also the pressure on innocent people to plead guilty. The Brooklyn DA now runs a "conviction review unit," part a new wave for exonerations.
To the Point
A New Movement to Free the Wrongfully Convicted Last year, 125 people across the United States were exonerated of crimes they didn’t commit—the highest number of wrongful convictions ever recorded. That’s according to the National Registry of Exonerations where Maurice Possley is a researcher. He’s a former Pulitzer-Prize winner who reported on wrongful convictions for the Chicago Tribune. In a 12-part series of podcasts last year, Sarah Keonig studied the case of Adnan Syed, a prisoner who still denies that he strangled Maryland high school student Hae Min Lee. So why did he ask his lawyer to negotiate a guilty plea if he maintained his innocence?
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To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.