Everyday Injustice

In 2019, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced she would not seek re-election for the position she held since 2016 serving as prosecutor in Orange and Osceola Counties in Florida. She told Everyday Injustice the sole reason for that decision was her opposition to the death penalty, and a Florida Supreme Court decision that upheld the reassignment of dozens of cases to another state attorne...

Recidivism is one of the greatest flaws of our criminal justice system - we punish people to the hilt and they get released without the tools to survive outside of our prison system and end up re-offending. The heart of criminal justice reform is to end these never ending cycles prison and poverty. And the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is fighting that frontline battle " to change lives and crea...

In the latest in our series on progressive candidates for District Attorney, we have Jason Williams, who will take on DA Leon Cannizzaro, one of the more notoriously aggressive prosecutors in the country. Jason Williams is a councilmember at large in New Orleans, but eschewed a run at Mayor to run for DA against Mr. Cannizaro who has held the job since 2008. Mr. Williams, a defense attorney, is ru...

US Attorney from the Eastern District of California McGregor Scott claimed homicide rates and violent crimes were affected by the policies of the progressive prosecutor movement. While he stated at the outset he was here to play the contrarian on the panel that included DA Chesa Boudin, State’s Attorney for Baltimore City Marilyn Mosby, Suffolk County DA Rachel Rollins (which includes Boston) - he...

Julie Gunnigle is the latest in our progressive prosecutor series on Everyday Injustice. She is running as a reformer in a district long held by Bill Montgomery. In addition, Maricopa County is well known as the home of notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Among the issues Ms. Gunnigle spoke to on Everyday Injustice, liberalization of marijuana policies. Arizona is the only state for whom even a trace am...

In 2017, Larry Krasner, a lifelong defense and civil rights attorney stunned the world by winning election to DA of Philadelphia and in so doing transformed the criminal justice system not only in his own city, but launched a movement across the country for progressive reform. He has seen tremendous progress but also seen the system attempt to push back against these changes. Listen as he talks ab...

Early in 2019, Michael Tirpak became the third person released from prison under SB 1437. He had served time in prison since 1996 following his conviction on first-degree murder. Prosecutors said he was driving the getaway driver, but attorneys from the Loyola Project for the Innocent said evidence presented at his trial showed that Tirpak, then 18, was using a pay phone down the street at the tim...

Jose Garza is another former public defender and federal public defender, currently the co-executive director of the Austin-based nonprofit Workers Defense Project, and running for prosecutor in Travis County, Texas home of Austin. Right before we recorded the podcast, he got a big endorsement from Elizabeth Warren. “With José as district attorney, Travis County will gain another champion in the f...

MIriam Krinsky is Executive Director of the group Fair and Just Prosecution, which is helping transform the criminal justice system by highlighting the roles and responsibilities of prosecutors. A former prosecutor, we talk about how things have changed over the course of her career, the current progressive prosecution movement and what that means for this country.

Decarcerate Sacramento is a grassroots organization that formed over the summer to oppose Sacramento County's proposed $89 million jail expansion plan and instead get the board to invest in vital social services. They came together last year and were able to get the board of Supervisors to cancel a planned $89 million jail expansion. Overall their focus is on jail condition and mass organizing to...

Michelle Tong is a San Francisco Public Defender who is running for judge in an open San Francisco Seat. She said on her campaign page: "I have dedicated my life’s work to advocating in the underserved communities of this city to better the lives of others. Judges have the unique power to make decisions that affect us day to day. From child custody decisions, to neighbor disputes, to critical crim...

Janos Marton is taking on longtime Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance who has served as DA for over a decade. He has led the effort to close the infamous Rikers Island jails and referring to his opponent as ‘the city’s leading jailer.’ Marton is a leading organizer in the New York City decarceration movement. This week he has joined the call for Mr. Vance to resign in light of criticism for decisions by his...

San Francisco Public Defender Maria Evangelista is running for an open judge position in San Francisco, she is attempting to become the firstLatina judge elected in San Francisco history. “I’m running for judge to ensure that our courts are in touch with the communities they serve and provide equal treatment for all people that come before the courts,” Ms. Evangelista told a media publication. “Th...

Genevieve Jones-Wright was a public defender who ran for District Attorney in 2018 - she pushed for improving public safety, rehabilitation as opposed to increasing prosecutions as well as taking on mass incarceration. In October 2019, she was one of the main speakers at the Vanguard Annual event on progressive prosecution and is the latest guest on Everyday Injustice in the progressive prosecutio...

In October George Gascon resigned from his position as San Francisco District Attorney, moved to Los Angeles to challenge incumbent Jackie Lacey. He is running on a progressive platform. Listen as he describes why he made the move, discusses his campaign for district attorney in Los Angeles and talks about the strengths and shortcomings of his time in San Francisco as well as his decision not supp...

Joseph Tully is a criminal justice attorney out of Martinez who represented among others Paul Fullerton and Heidi Lepp. He is the author of a book called, California "The State of Collusion." He said in the book: "It sounds troubling and extreme but I see it every week as a criminal defense lawyer practicing criminal law in California: psychopaths in law enforcement – and they’re not the outliers!...

Eli Savit is an attorney, a law professor, and a former public-school teacher. A former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eli currently serves as the City of Detroit's senior legal counsel, where he leads criminal-justice reform work for Michigan's largest city. Eli Savit is running for DA in Washtenaw County, Michigan, home of Ann Arbour and the University of Michigan. He is running to re...

In 2016, a group of anti-fascist counterprotesters clashed with neo-Nazis white nationalist rally June 26, 2016, at the State Capitol. Seven anti-fascist counter-protestors were stabbed and several hospitalized. Tried separately were three counter protestors who faced felony assault charges. THat case dragged on until early this year, where the protestors were able to plead to misdemeanor charges...

The Harvest Cycle Davidson v. El Dorado County case features two separate questions: the constitutionality of SB 1437 and whether Mr. Davidson was a major participant in a 2016 robbery and thus acted in reckless indifference to human life. The Attorney General’s Office takes the position that SB 1437 is constitutional but that SB 1437 does not apply in this case because Mr. Davidson played a key r...

Davis Mayor Brett Lee comes on for his second monthly podcast. The big question the day before Christmas - did the council address core issues or were they simply putting out brushfires. Naturally the Mayor thought that the council was addressing core issues rather than putting out brushfires.

Trische Duckworth helped found Survivors Speak in February 2018. They have heavily focused on wrongful convictions due to Ms. Duckworth's work with the Vesey Family since 2014. As they explain: "We were birthed from the thought of people suffering and not having the courage or wherewithal to speak their truths. It was with that thought in mind that we began." It is their mission "to provide a plat...

Nazgol Ghandnoosh is a Senior Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization engaged in research and advocacy for criminal justice reform. Nazgol holds a Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles (2013). In the podcast, she talks about mass incarceration, how reform the system to attempt to cut the prison population in half while maintaining public sa...

Michael Gennaco was hired as the police auditor by the city of Davis in the wake of the Picnic Day incident. Mr. Gennaco is a veteran auditor who has reviewed cases and incidents across the nation. Everyday Injustice talks with him about his job, the field of police oversight and how it has evolved over time, the advent of body worn cameras and high profile cases like the death of Kelly Thomas in...

Joe Kimok is progressive candidate running for Broward County State Attorney in Florida. One of eight Democratic candidates vying for the August 2020 primary in a race dominated by the specter of the Parkland shooting and the upcoming death penalty trial for the shooter next year. Joe Kimok is running as the reformer candidate. We talked extensively about the Parkland shooting and the death penalt...

In 1986, Dusty Turner was convicted of 1st degree murder and abduction and sentenced to 82 years in prison in Virginia - a state lagging behind in criminal justice reform and which has no parole. A former Navy SEAL, Dusty had hooked with a woman one night. He and his friend, Billy Joe Brown, drove to the Bayou, a nightclub in Virginia Beach, where Jennifer Evans, who was with two female friends, i...