This week we’re revisiting a few of our favorite episodes from the 12 months to this point. This episode was first broadcast on 9 Could.
The division spends six months reinvestigating Kuantay Reeder’s case. They discover new proof, and the Guardian’s US southern bureau chief, Oliver Laughland, accompanies the staff to court docket to see whether or not Reeder’s conviction shall be overturned. Additionally current are members of Mark Broxton’s household, together with his mom, Mary Inexperienced, who see Reeder nose to nose for the primary time since 1995.
Oliver additionally visits Harry Connick, the district lawyer from 1973 to 2003. Many individuals argue his insurance policies – reminiscent of routine use of the ordinary offender regulation – have been one of many primary causes New Orleans turned the incarceration capital of the world. Oliver questions Connick on using multi-billing and the problem of Brady violations – the place proof is withheld – throughout his tenure. In 2011 the supreme court docket justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mentioned an absence of coaching on Brady was pervasive.
In some ways, Connick and the brand new district lawyer, Jason Williams, couldn’t be a lot additional aside. A whole lot of what Jason Williams is doing now could be a direct response to the insurance policies and the legacy of Connick. However there are some parallels between them. Connick was in energy through the largest crime wave New Orleans had ever seen. And when Williams took workplace, the crime fee was hovering too. Oliver and the producer Joshua Kelly pay a go to to Williams to ask how he’s responding to the strain of the rising crime charges and his upcoming trial for alleged tax evasion. If discovered responsible, there are query marks over the way forward for the civil-rights division.
Learn Oliver’s reporting on his six months with the division:
The Visiting Room is an internet mission documenting interviews with over 100 inmates serving life with out parole sentences at Angola jail. Kuantay Reeder was filmed as a part of the mission whereas he was incarcerated:
https://www.visitingroomproject.org/
{Photograph}: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian
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