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
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
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
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.