Episode 6: Culpability

Update: Biden commutes 37 death sentences

On Dec. 23, in the final weeks of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 prisoners to life in prison without the possibility of parole. All but three death row prisoners received commutations, including several who didn't ask for clemency. Now back in office, President Trump is seeking to restart executions at the high-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal death sentences are carried out. Trump says he also plans to pursue capital punishment in future criminal cases. In this bonus episode, we'll hear from one of the prisoners whose sentence was commuted as well as a woman whose mother was among the victims of a racist attack at a church in South Carolina. Her killer remains on federal death row. — Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill [https://wfiu.org/rushtokill]. Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rush-to-kill/id1711105432] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/42LOBAYUaNbHMrFwPnsq36?si=4e3514ac7c9b4a3c] | RSS [https://f.prxu.org/5307/feed-rss.xml] More podcasts from WFIU [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/organizations/s385]

Episode 8: In The Shadows

In this final episode, we’ll take a look at the final execution of the Trump administration, which was legally unusual. This episode will also include discussion of the “Shadow Docket” — and why some experts argue that the death penalty is corrupting our legal system, allowing the Supreme Court to make decisions without explaining why. — Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill [https://wfiu.org/rushtokill]. Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rush-to-kill/id1711105432] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/42LOBAYUaNbHMrFwPnsq36?si=4e3514ac7c9b4a3c] | RSS [https://f.prxu.org/5307/feed-rss.xml] More podcasts from WFIU [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/organizations/s385]

Episode 7: Intellectual Disability

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the government from carrying out death sentences of people with intellectual disabilities. But in its final weeks in office, the Trump administration set dates for two intellectually disabled men. Corey Johnson was the second person after Alfred Bourgeois whose attorneys presented evidence he was intellectually disabled. Coming up in the final episode, we'll see how the continued existence of the American death penalty is leaving its mark on our society. — Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill [https://wfiu.org/rushtokill]. Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rush-to-kill/id1711105432] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/42LOBAYUaNbHMrFwPnsq36?si=4e3514ac7c9b4a3c] | RSS [https://f.prxu.org/5307/feed-rss.xml] More podcasts from WFIU [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/organizations/s385]

Episode 6: Culpability

In this episode, we meet the people behind a global campaign to save Brandon Bernard. And how 20 years later, they say the experience transformed their beliefs about capital punishment and fairness in the justice system. Coming up in Episode 7: Facing a hard deadline, the U.S. government rushes to carry out two remaining scheduled executions. They both go very wrong. — Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill [https://wfiu.org/rushtokill]. Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rush-to-kill/id1711105432] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/42LOBAYUaNbHMrFwPnsq36?si=4e3514ac7c9b4a3c] | RSS [https://f.prxu.org/5307/feed-rss.xml] More podcasts from WFIU [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/organizations/s385]

Episode 5: Lynch Law

Historians have long documented how the modern death penalty emerged as a supposed “solution” to the problem of lynchings, racial or otherwise. A method to exact justice behind closed doors, to avoid spectacle. The death penalty is supposed to be a neutral alternative. And yet, at least at the federal level, it depends on who’s in charge. Starting in 2020, the Trump administration swiftly executed 12 men and one woman in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal executions take place. Far more than any administration in modern history. And, curiously, the execution spree initially appeared to spare one typically over-represented demographic: Black men. The feds waited all summer before scheduling the execution of a Black person. But once they started, they didn’t stop; every man selected to die after last summer was Black. A year later, the question remains: why was the execution spree split along racial lines? In this episode, we try to find out. We’ll hear from the first African American targeted by the U.S. government for execution in two decades — and find out why his loved ones threw out the clemency rulebook and took his case directly to the American people. And we’ll hear from experts convinced that justice officials considered race when they selected which people to kill — and when. Why that might be, and what it says about the federal death penalty’s ability to deliver justice, and mercy, without bias. Coming up in Episode 6: What happens when a prosecutor changes her mind and tries to save someone she helped condemn to death? — Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill [https://wfiu.org/rushtokill]. Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rush-to-kill/id1711105432] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/42LOBAYUaNbHMrFwPnsq36?si=4e3514ac7c9b4a3c] | RSS [https://f.prxu.org/5307/feed-rss.xml] More podcasts from WFIU [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/organizations/s385]