EP 152 Exonerating Alaskans with Jory Knott

Crude Conversations

crudemag

Society & Culture

5 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this one, Cody talks to Jory Knott. He’s the Executive Director of the Alaska Innocence Project. The Alaska Innocence Project started in 2008 under the direction of Bill Oberly, and it took seven years for them to get their first exoneration — it was the Fairbanks Four case, in which four Alaska Native men were wrongly convicted of murder and subsequently spent 18 years in prison. Jory says that case involved a number of factors that led to a wrongful conviction, including eyewitness misidentification, incentivized witnesses, confirmation bias, racial animus, misconduct, and bad science. This was the case that got Jory interested in working with the Innocence Project — he was an intern then, but made the decision to go to law school so that he could work there full-time. Studies that consider the number of people who have been wrongfully convicted in the U.S. since the late-1980s estimate that up to 5 percent of the prison population is wrongfully convicted. In Alaska, that would mean about 150 innocent people are in prison. Nationally, the average person who is wrongfully convicted spends 12 years in prison before they’re exonerated. And Alaska is among about a dozen other states that do not have a wrongful conviction compensation statute, so exonerees don’t get any money following their release. Even convicted felons receive things like re-entry services, recidivism prevention, education, job services and drug counseling. But Jory says that, despite all of this, he still has faith in the criminal justice system because, for the most part, it gets it right and wrongful convictions are rare.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the show. In this one I talked to Jory Nott. He's the executive director of the Alaska Innocence Project.
0:20.0	The Alaska Innocence Project started in 2008 under the direction of Bill Oberley, and it took seven years for them to get their first exoneration.
0:31.0	It was the Fairbanks Four case in which four Alaska
0:35.1	Native men were wrongly convicted of murder and subsequently spent 18 years
0:39.9	in prison. Jory says that that case involved a number of factors that led to a wrongful conviction,
0:48.0	including eyewitness misidentification, incentivize witnesses, confirmation bias, racial animus, misconduct, and bad science.
1:00.4	This was the case that Guy Jory interested in working with the Innocence Project.
1:04.0	He was an intern then, but made the decision to go to law school so that he could work there full time.
1:16.4	This podcast is made possible through the generous support of The crude magazine Patreon subscribers. If you already subscribe to the crude magazine
1:21.3	Patreon, thank you. For those listeners who aren't,
1:24.8	please consider subscribing at Patreon.com slash crude magazine.
1:30.6	That's Patreon.com slash crude magazine.
1:35.0	I want to think the subscription tier that works for you.
1:39.0	I want to thank everyone subscribed at the company man tier.
1:42.0	These are the people who have
1:43.8	subscribed to the crude Patreon for $50 or more. Trina Dober. Seward
1:49.8	Brewing Company. The Grind Coffee Shop in Juno, Derek Adolf, Sharon Liska, Jake Liska,
1:59.4	Alaska Surf Adventure, and borderline legacy. Thank you to all the Patreon subscribers.
2:06.4	Your money and your support make these conversations possible.
2:10.9	You can also support this podcast with a one-time payment at
2:14.0	Buy Me a Coffee.com slash crude magazine.
2:18.0	That's Buy Me a Coffee
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from crudemag, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of crudemag and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.