Wrongful Conviction · The Sneak
Plus: an audiobook/podcast on a murderous Alaskan actor
the true crime that's worth your time
The Detroit News has launched a new true crime podcast. The paper has covered the problems with Detroit Police Department investigations, an agency so troubled that federal regulators ruled that it must end its “pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing.”
So don’t expect the pod, called Sins of Detroit, to blindly repeat law enforcement narratives or accounts. Instead, the News says, the show will focus on people who were wrongly convicted based on questionable evidence provided by DPD and its associated agencies (its crime lab was such a mess, for example, that in 2008 it was shut down). The first season, which is subtitled “Motor City Injustice,” dropped its first (of five episodes earlier this week. You can listen to it here. -- EB
Wrongful Conviction just kicked off its ninth season. Seriously, what is this podcast, Supernatural? Nine seasons? For the premiere, host Jason Flom (who is described in the press release for the season as an “entrepreneur, music industry executive, author, philanthropist, and social justice activist,” prompting me to say, aloud. “Jeez, Flom, relax”) is speaking with Texas inmate Rodney Reed, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on November 20.
The Reed case is controversial enough that it’s caught the attention of voices as disparate as Beyonce and Ted Cruz, all of whom are advocating for a delay to allow more time to review evidence. Cruz, who’s hardly a bleeding heart, even told CBS Austin that there have “been meaningful and serious questions raised, calling into question his guilt or his innocence. If there's a real question of innocence, the system needs to stop, and look at the evidence because an innocent man should be set free.” As of this issue’s send time, those calls have gone unheeded.
Speaking with Fortune, Flom says he took this case on at such a late date because “provided the governor does what we are all hoping and many are praying, he will do, grants the stay and it goes back to the parole board, there will still be work to do, and it'll still be important to tell the story.“ You can listen to the episode, which dropped yesterday, here. I do have a trigger warning for you, however: Dr. Phil does appear on the ep, so if you find him as irritating as I do, be ready to do some fast-forwarding. -- EB
USA Today is doing a subscription-based true crime podcast with For The Win and Wondery. The show’s called The Sneak, and it’ll cover a 2008 armored car robbery committed by D.B. Tuber, a Seattle-area college football star. The first episode is free to listen to, it’s here. After that, Wondery+ subscribers get it (and all the company’s other subscription content) for $4.99 per month. -- EB
If you listen and think it’s compelling enough to sign up for a subscription, drop me a line? I’m compiling a list of “true crime podcasts worth paying for” for an upcoming issue of BE and am actively seeking recommendations.
Another Audible podcast reminds me yet again that I have to figure out a way to get that platform into my podcast listening workflow. I do think it’s interesting how the company is blurring the boundaries between audiobooks and podcasts (side question: do your expectations differ for the two mediums?), and here’s a good example: Midnight Son (Audible is so weird but I think this link should work) is narrated by James Dommek Jr., who co-wrote the tale with Isaac Kestenbaum and Josie Holtzman. According to Alaska Public Media, which interviewed Dommek about the show, the series is about actor Teddy Kyle Smith, a Native Alaskan who was convicted of attempted murder back in 2014, after he shot and robbed two hunters in the Alaska wilderness, a case that “brought to life local legends and “initiated a legal dispute that, at its heart, questions the idea of a trial by one’s peers.” OK, folks, maybe this will be the one that makes Audible stick for me. -- EB
Monday on Best Evidence: “Queering” true crime coverage.
What is this thing? This should help.
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