former inmate
Former inmate in Newark, New Jersey, he was released in March, 2014 after serving 17 years for a rape he says he did not commit (DNA evidence helped get him released)
PROFILE
Rodney Roberts
Guest
FROM Rodney Roberts
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
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
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.
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.