Power to the Podcast

What role can citizens play in prosecutorial reform? In 2017, the people of Philadelphia elected Larry Krasner, a lifelong civil rights attorney to the position of District Attorney. Krasner immediately implemented policies intended to reduce mass incarcerations.  In this 4th and final part of our series, Nicholas Pressley from the ACLU of Pennsylvania discusses his experiences leading the Vote Smart Justice campaign during the 2017 district attorney election in Philadelphia.

In part 3 of this series, you'll be introduced to Minnesota's incumbent County Attorneys in Hennepin and Nicollet Counties and their challengers. In Hennepin County, Mark Hasse is challenging County Attorney Mike Freeman and in Nicollet County, Elizabeth Levine is challenging current County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer.

How do County Attorneys decide if and how they try cases? How do they decide what sort of charges to bring? Elizer Darris, who was charged with first-degree murder as teenager, shares how prosecutorial discretion affected his life. Hennepin County Chief Public Defender Mary Moriarty provides examples of prosecutorial discretion. And Attorney John Hamer, who represented a 14-year-old girl charged with distribution of child pornography, discusses the role prosecutorial discretion played in that case.

In the first part of this series, hosts Aliya Khan and Jana Kooren are joined by Bill Cobb, Deputy Director for the ACLU's Campaign for Smart Justice to talk about shifting the dialogue around County Attorneys to reflect our culture. They're also joined by Theresa Nelson, ACLU of Minnesota's Legal Director, to discuss why we have County Attorneys and what role they play in criminal justice.