Marissa Alexander, a licensed gun owner, fired a warning shot at her estranged husband when he had her cornered in her own garage. The shot worked. He left, and neither of them was harmed. But she was charged and sentenced to 20 years. Defenses of self-defense didn’t work, not even invoking Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Public pressure eventually persuaded the prosecutor to agree to 3 years time served. What role did being black play? And the fact that this case played out at the time of the Trayvon Martin shooting? Marissa plans to use her experience of the US justice system, earned during 3 years in jail, to help others. through a non-profit that she has founded, the Marissa Alexander Justice Project:
https://marissaalexander.org

David talks with James Trainum, a former Washington DC police detective about false confessions. Apart from studying them, he admits that once he obtained a false confession in a high profile case, so he understands just how easy it is for a policeman to fall into this trap. Apart from describing how false confessions can be obtained without any physical abuse of a suspect, he also describes how they can be avoided, such as by ending the use of the Reid technique and moving to the PEACE technique, developed by the British police after a raft of false confessions. Trainum is author of, “How the Police Generate False Confessions”: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442244658/How-the-Police-Generate-False-Confessions-An-Inside-Look-at-the-Interrogation-Room

- David