Court Of Public Opinion: Trial Watching In America

BackStory

History, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2016

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of BackStory, the Guys will explore our fascination with courtroom drama. What makes for a compelling case and why have some landmark proceedings received little attention? We’ll consider why so many Americans followed the trial of a young clerk accused of murdering a New York City prostitute in 1836, and why we’re still talking about Sacco and Vanzetti nearly a century after they were sentenced to death. From public hanging in Puritan Massachusetts, to the murder trial of Black Panther leader Huey Newton in the late 1960’s, the Guys will reveal the deep-seated issues beneath American trial-watching.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is backstory. I'm Peter Onof.
0:04.0	If you're looking for your next big binge, you might want to check out the Netflix original
0:08.0	docu-series making a murderer.
0:10.0	It quickly became a phenomenon and has more than 200,000 people.
0:14.4	Those are the hosts of NBC's Today Show.
0:16.7	Earlier this month, noting public pleased to pardon the subjects of a new crime documentary.
0:22.8	But Americans using the court of public opinion to re-illitiate trials is nothing new.
0:28.1	In the 1920s, two men convicted of murder published prison letters to guard our worldwide
0:34.0	sympathy.
0:35.0	That they could write so eloquently was considered by many people to be further evidence that
0:38.9	they couldn't possibly have done this.
0:41.0	How could they be killers? They write such great letters.
0:45.6	From unrepentant pirates in Puritan New England to crimes of passion in the 1830s, we got
0:51.5	a history of trial-watching today on backstory.
0:58.1	Major funding for backstory is provided by the ShiaCon Foundation, the National Endowment
1:05.4	for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur
1:10.1	Vining Davis Foundations.
1:13.6	From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, this is backstory with the American History
1:20.6	Guys.
1:24.8	Welcome to the show. I'm Brian Bellow, and I'm here with my buddy, Peter Oniff.
1:29.6	Hey, Brian, and my friend Ed Ayers is here with us.
1:33.0	Hey, gentlemen. We're going to start today with a guy named Joe Rice, and he has a very
	...

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