Jaws of Justice Radio

Ricky Kidd, Free At Last And Looking For Justice For Other Wrongfully Convicted Citizens This is the first picture EVER of my Boy with his Dad!! *Ricky Kidd and His Son Austin August 14 at 11:45 AM BREAKING: Circuit Court Judge Daren Adkins has issued an order finding Ricky Kidd is innocent and that the State withheld evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland. The Court has ordered that Ricky Kid...

Jenkins v City of Jennings In 2015 eight plaintiffs filed suit against the City of Jennings. The complaint alleged that impoverished city residents were jailed solely because of their inability to pay court fines and fees from traffic and other municipal violations. No meaningful inquiry was made of their ability to pay, and the City officials arbitrarily decided how much a particular debtor shoul...

Holding Amy McGowen, and all Prosecutors, Accountable With the release this week of another wrongfully convicted man we look at the issue of Prosecutorial Misconduct, in particular that of Amy McGowen former Jackson County Prosecutor who nows works in the Douglass County, KS Prosecutor's office. Ms McGowan not only withheld evidence in the case of this latest overturned conviction there are a numb...

Bobby Bostic Doesn't Want Kids Making The Same Mistakes He Did Bobby Bostic is serving the longest sentence in Missouri given to a juvenile for non-homicide offenses. At 16 years old Bostic and his accomplice robbed a group of people delivering Christmas presents and shot two then later carjacked another woman. No one was seriously injured in the incidents but after rejecting a plea deal Bostic wa...

Family United Transportation Services – Connecting Families With Their Incarcerated Loved Ones No one goes to prison alone, their family is affected in a variety of ways and staying connected with one's family while incarcerated is one of the most important factors in reducing recidivism. Many poor families cannot afford to make the trip to visit their incarcerated loved ones and public transporta...

WYCO Behavioural Health Court The Wyandotte County Behavioural Health Court is a problem solving court that works to help defendants with a Felony conviction, that have a severe and persistent mental illness and have been placed on probation. They must have a diagnosis by Wyandotte Mental Healthcare and are referred to the court by prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers and even other...

A Replay - A Conversation with Nancy Leazer – How We Can Use Our Prisons As More Than Warehouses With the KCMO Jail being evicted from the Jackson County Jail we thought it was time to replay our 2015 interview with Nancy Leazer, the last Director of the old Kansas City Jail, The Farm, before they moved to the Jackson County jail. When the Municipal Correctional Institution was closed in 2009 and...

Why They Come and American Prisons in Honduras I recently heard someone in the coffeeshop ask "if their country is so great why do they want to come here?" My thought was, you answered your own question. Honduras, like other countries in Central America are not such great places to live today. The corruption, repression and violence has many fleeing for their lives and many more standing up and fi...

An Hour With Jean Peters Baker, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County Prosecutor has been in that role since 2011 and she’s distinguished herself by standing up strongly for victims in our community. She also has become known for taking on some high-profile cases, like the potential prosecution last year of Gov. Eric Greitens. Host David Bell and Jean Peters Baker will ta...

Cannabis, Hemp, and Injustice What is cannabis... is it pot, hemp... what?  Keith Washburn interviews Mark Buddemeyer, who is the owner and director of operations for KC GREENFIELDS, a local cannabis consulting company with over 25 years of experience in the legal cannabis industry. Our topics on Monday will include: The corrupt story of how marijuana became illegal. The current problem with canna...

Who Was Angie Schroer and Why Did Indepence Police Say She Committed Suicide? Today's broadcast is two parts of the story of Angie Schroer. In the first half host Jeff Humfeld talks to Angie's Mother, Jackie Schroer about her daughter, as a child and on up to adulthood until she was killed, as well as Angie's hopes and dreams for the future. We want help people understand what Angie's family lost...

COUNT TIME! The Life and Times of Patricia Prewitt A solo performance by Elizabeth Ann Townsend – Awarded Best Production in the 2016 St. Lou Fringe Festival. (Note - today's broadcast is of an edited version of the play to fit JoJR's time constraints.) In the early morning hours of February 18, 1984, Patty Prewitt was dragged from her bed where she had been sleeping soundly next to her husband, B...

Judy Henderson - Pardoned After 35 Years Judy Henderson and her boyfriend at the time Greg Cruzan were charged with the 1981 murder of a jewelry store owner in Springfield, MO. Henderson wasn't the one who pulled the trigger yet she got 50 years and Cruzan got acquitted. Since 2004 three different Governors had denied her appeals for Clemency. The in 2018 just before leaving office Governor Greite...

Legislative Wrap Up With KS Representative J Russell Jennings And MO Representative Judy Morgan Host Teresa Wilke will talk with KS State Representative J Russell Jennings and Host Jeff Humfeld talks with MO State Representative Judy Morgan about the good and bad bills that passed and didn't pass in their respective 2019 Legislative sessions. Kansas Rep. Jennings Dist 122 785 296-7447 russ.jenning...

Today we begin with excerpts of From The Vault #0459 - a quick montage of recordings that Pacifica Radio Recorded of Angela Davis from 1969 to The Wall Street Occupy Movement in 2011, then a longer recording of a February 23, 2015 conversation between Professor Angela Davis and the University of Southern California's Dr. Michele Turner at an event entitled Angela Davis: A Lifetime of Revolution Fe...

Reentry Is Hard For Exonerees Too As more and more wrongfully convicted citizens are exonerated the issue of compensation has come to the fore. In Missouri only those exonerated by DNA are eligible for compensation and it isn't automatic. Kansas recently passed a compensation law for exonerees that is still being figured out. The problem of lack of skills, work history and education plague many ex...

Brian Daldorph, Mentoring Prison Poets We replay an interview from June of 2018 Brian Daldorph has been involved with prison poetry programs at the Lawrence Jail and the Kansas Penitentiary at Lansing, KS. He is the Editor/Poetry Editor of Coal City Review, an Independent Literary Review published annually by the Coal City Review Press. The 2018 edition of the Coal City Review features the Poets o...

Mental Illness Behind Bars Since the 1980's when funding for community mental health centers was cut drastically the number of people in prison because of mental illness has risen steadily. Wardens and Corrections officials from state and local prisons and jails acknowledge they are ill equipped to handle those inmates that have emotional problems. More and more states and communities are funding...

The Case Of Victor Vickers Raises Questions Victor Vickers and Garron T Briggs were convicted of a 2011 home invasion, murder and shooting in what appeared to be search for drugs. The surviving victim did not initially identify Vickers, someone she knew and with whom she had gone to school. The lack of physical evidence placing Vickers at the scene and a denial of an alibi witness are being raised...

Can A Black Man Plead Self Defense In Jackson County? The case of Cameron Gines has raised the question of whether a black man can claim self defense in Jackson County. Cameron was attacked repeatedly at a convenience store on E 23rd St and retreated from his attacker more than once. It was not until the store owner locked the door denying Cameron an avenue of escape and he was again attacked that...

Replay of - Bail Bonds, Bad Policy Jaws of Justice Radio took a look at the Bail Bond industry in December of 2018, the arguments used to support it, the unfair effects on the poor, the negative effects on the economy and local communities. We replay three interviews Jamie Jackson did with groups working to eliminate the practice. Host Jamie Jackson starts out talking with Professor Peter Edelman,...

Is The 1988 Fire Fighters Case Really Solved? In the early hours of a late November day in 1988 KCMO Firefighters were called to the scene of a PU truck fire at a construction site in South Kansas City. While they were putting out the truck fire the noticed a second fire across the street at the construction site for the south leg of the Bruce Watkins drive. An arson fire had been set under a coup...

David Robinson, Charges Dropped After 18 Years of Incarceration On May 14, 2018 David Robinson was released after almost 18 years in the MO Corrections System. He had been wrongfully convicted and in the release order from the MO Supreme Court they agreed that Robinson had met his burden of proof and established what's known as a "gateway" claim of innocence after proving his constitutional rights...

Many of our listeners will recognise Michael Steven Smith as one of the hosts of Law and Disorder which airs on KKFI Tuesday mornings at 9 AM. He often interviews "Lawyers You'll Like", a recurring segment on L&D. This feature has inspired his latest book, Lawyers For The Left: In The Courts, In The Streets and On The Air, stories of lawyers who have devoted their careers to representing victi...

Arlin Buyert Got Kicked Out Of Lansing Prison Arlin Buyert grew up on a farm in Iowa, he flew planes over Vietnam during the war and until recently he taught poetry at the Kansas penitentiary in Lansing, KS. Arlin is also a published poet and has come to understand in his own life and in his work that redemption starts with an understanding of and having an outlet for one's emotions. When Arts In...