License To Kill · In The Dark · Teacher's Pet
Plus: Hamish McLaren, 60 Days In, and A Lie to Die For
the true crime that's worth your time
The US Supreme Court has struck down the murder conviction of Curtis Flowers, the subject of In The Dark’s most recent season. The award-winning podcast’s second season officially ended in July of 2018 -- but movement in the case spurred several post-season episodes, the most recent dropping on Saturday.
Flowers has been imprisoned since 1996, when he was arrested in the execution-style slayings of four people inside a Mississippi furniture store. Over the next two decades, he was tried six times in the case, after two trials resulted in hung juries and three other convictions were reversed due to claims of prosecutorial misconduct.
According to a 7-2 decision issued by the Court on Friday, prosecutor Doug Evans violated the Constitution by dismissing black candidates as potential jurors in the sixth trial, which resulted in a death penalty sentence in 2010. The case was also the subject of the third and fourth episodes of Joe Berlinger’s docu-series The Wrong Man.
Writing the majority decision (which you can read here), Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that "the numbers speak loudly. Over the course of the first four trials, there were 36 black prospective jurors against whom the State could have exercised a peremptory strike. The State tried to strike all 36." Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas were the dissenting votes, with Thomas writing "Flowers presented no evidence whatsoever of purposeful race discrimination by the State in selecting the jury during the trial below. If the Court's opinion today has a redeeming quality, it is this: The State is perfectly free to convict Curtis Flowers again.”
In addition to the most recent episode of the podcast, American Public Media has published a thorough report on what the decision means for Flowers and his future. As of Sunday night, Mississippi prosecutors have not announced a decision regarding a potential seventh trial. -- EB
Hamish McLaren, of Who The Hell Is Hamish? fame, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. The podcast on the now-convicted fraudster (we discussed the show on The Blotter Presents just last month) also put out a post-season episode Friday, after a Sydney, Australia court sentenced McLaren in a $7.6 million fraud case for which he was arrested in 2017.
As you might recall, McLaren was initially expected to be sentenced in February, but that decision was put on pause after his defense team requested a mental health evaluation. The Australian reports that a psychiatrist who examined McLaren said that he was “driven by greed and deficient personality traits, rather than mental illness.”
While rendering his decision, Judge Colin Charteris said that a one-page letter McLaren shared with the court “does not persuade me remotely that this man is sorry…I do not believe he has any remorse, I believe he is consumed by himself…the one focus was his wellbeing, so he could live, apparently, the high life, while spending the retirement savings of others.” According to WTHiH host Greg Bearup, McLaren’s sentence is “one of Australia’s longest-ever sentences for fraud.” He will be eligible for parole as of 2029. -- EB
60 Days In “star” Monalisa Johnson is getting her own show. As you might recall, 60 Days In sends innocent people into county jails to provide insights into the correctional system and/or to entertain people who enjoy the “better you than me, buddy” angle to challenge-based reality programming. Johnson, whose daughter was serving a ten-year sentence for a drug offense, said she went on the show to understand her daughter’s prison experience. She has since (per her LinkedIn profile) parlayed that into a career as an “Author, Speaker, & Certified Life Coach.”
Add “TV host” to the list, as Johnson is now the face of Prisoner of Hope, a show that will air on streaming network iOne. In the show, she will work with inmate families to help them “heal from the devastating effects of incarceration, including the anxiety and other emotions felt about the family being released.” You can watch the pilot episode (it’s only 10 minutes) below. -- EB
License To Kill and A Lie to Die For both dropped on Oxygen last night. The former is hosted by Botched’s (and Real Housewives, OC’s) Terry Dubrow, and covers “chilling accounts of medical professionals knowingly putting people in danger.”
The latter doesn’t have a famous liar as a host, which is kind of a bummer! But that’s apparently the thrust of A Lie to Die For, which, you guys, is kind of vague -- what crime investigation, especially a homicide one, doesn’t involve lying? I’m just saying, as far as market differentiation goes, one could do better. While neither of these seem like prestige projects that will rock your world, I have to say that License to Kill is pretty fun, in a pop a gummy and order a pizza kind of way. ALtDF, on the other hand, isn’t anything to go out of your way for. -- EB
An Australian court says that a true crime podcast has posed legal and procedural questions for an ongoing case. Chris Dawson, the subject of The Teacher’s Pet, was arrested last December for the alleged slaying of his wife some time in 1982. The disappearance of Lynette Dawson, as well as her husband’s alleged sexual relationship with a high school student, was the focus of the show, which has placed the trial in “almost uncharted waters,” a judge said last week. Dawson, who has been free on bail, pleaded not guilty last week to all charges, and was subsequently charged with “carnal knowledge teacher of girl between the ages of 10 and 17,” officials say. Publishers of The Australian have agreed to remove a “large amount of material that is part of the prosecution brief,” Dawson's lawyer said, as the “impact of the podcast” could contribute to the “risk of contamination,” he said. -- EB
Tuesday on Best Evidence: Theranos, Lisa’s Law, and what HBO has on tap for us next month.
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