Episode 17: Felony Murder

Justice In America

The Appeal

News, Politics, Prison, Law, Criminal, Justice, Jail, History, Education, Incarceration, America

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2019

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In prisons across America, people are serving decades-long sentences for crimes they didn’t commit. Some face a life sentence or even the death penalty. Yet there is no hope of exoneration because technically, these people aren’t innocent. They may not be guilty as a matter of fact, but they are guilty as a matter of law. On this episode, we dissect the felony murder doctrine and explore the various ways our system transfers culpability. We also talk to Marlon Peterson, an advocate, writer, and host of the podcast DEcarcerated. Marlon became a leader on this issue after he was convicted of felony murder and spent a decade in prison. He spoke about his experience in prison and the work he’s done since his release.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm a violent felon for the rest of
0:05.0	my life I'm a violent felon, right?
0:10.0	I can't get an Airbnb because of that.
0:13.0	If I need to travel, I can't go to certain countries without getting a whole process done
0:17.0	based on, was I violent or was I not violent?
0:21.0	And there's no space to grapple with it.
0:23.0	What does your record say you were violent?
0:25.0	So you just don't get that Race. And I'm Clint Smith. And this is Justice in America. Each show we discuss a topic in the American criminal justice system and try to explain what it is and how it works. Thank you so much everyone for joining us today. You can find us on Twitter at Justice underscore podcast. Like us on our Facebook page
0:56.2	at Justice in America and subscribe and rate us on iTunes. We'd really love to hear from
1:00.4	you. We open the show with a clip from our guest, Marlon Peterson.
1:05.2	Marlon's a writer. He's an advocate around issues of incarceration,
1:08.7	violence, and community empowerment, and he hosts a podcast called Decarcerated.
1:13.0	Today we're talking about a disturbing practice in our criminal justice system
1:16.0	and that's people being charged with murder even though they didn't actually kill anyone.
1:21.0	This phenomenon takes many different forms which we're going to talk about today.
1:24.5	But as always we're starting out with our word of the day and today the word is
1:30.3	violent. Yeah our word of the day is violent or nonviolent.
1:35.0	Either one actually works for our purposes.
1:38.0	So if you live on planet Earth, at least if you live in America,
1:41.0	I can't speak for everywhere, but I'm sure you have heard the term
1:44.3	violent criminal. You heard it on TV. Papa was a violent criminal. And I am a violent criminal.
1:52.8	You've heard it from politicians on both sides of the aisle.
	...

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