A Life Sentence: Victims, Offenders, Justice And My Mother

A Life Sentence: Victims, Offenders, Justice And My Mother: There are more than 2,000 people in prisons around the country who were convicted of murder as juveniles and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. But recent Supreme Court decisions have found these sentences unconstitutional and set in motion a process for re-evaluating these “juvenile lifers.” To close out the first season of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, we have three stories about juvenile lifers. This first is the story of a violent crime committed by a juvenile lifer whose second chance went horribly wrong. It is an intensely personal documentary, but it carries far-reaching implications that extend into public life and into the heart of our political and correctional systems.This piece was produced by Samantha Broun and Jay Allison. It was originally made in 2016 for the public radio website Transom.org. Listen to it here: https://transom.org/2016/a-life-sentence-victims-offenders-justice-and-my-mother/. We are by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

55 min listen

Living With Murder: Part One: At 15, after committing a brutal murder, Kempis Songster was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But now he has a chance to be free, thanks to a series of recent Supreme Court rulings that found the sentences of thousands of inmates who, like Songster, committed their crimes as juveniles, to be unconstitutional. This is Part One of his story. It was produced by Samantha Broun and Jay Allison. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

47 min listen

Update: Living With Murder: In December 2017, after serving 30 years of his life sentence, Kempis Songster left Graterford Prison on lifetime parole. A lot has happened since then. He now lives in Philadelphia. He’s working, married and became a father. One year after Reporter Samantha Broun and Kempis Songster stopped recording their conversations for the Living with Murder series, they return with this series’ update on what Kempis’ life looks like today. This story was produced in collaboration with the public radio website Transom.org. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

13 min listen

Coming September 14th: Some stories are meant to be heard. A new narrative podcast from the producers and reporters of the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE. New episodes biweekly. Subscribe now. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

2 min listen

Child Marriage in America: In the summer after 9th grade, 14-year-old Heather discovered she was pregnant. Her boyfriend Aaron was 24. At the time, marriage seemed like it could be a solution to their problems — and maybe a way to keep Aaron out of jail. In this episode of the FRONTLINE Dispatch, reporter Anjali Tsui and producer Sophie McKibben go inside a battle playing out over child marriage in America. Anjali Tsui is an Abrams Journalism Fellow through the FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism School Fellowships. For more on child marriage in America – visit pbs.org/frontlinedispatch. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

53 min listen

Coming November 29th: The second season of The FRONTLINE Dispatch launches on November 29th. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

2 min listen

Covering Coronavirus: Athens, Ohio: As schools close to help stem the spread of COVID-19, what happens to kids who rely on school meals to eat? by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

17 min listen

The Housing Fix (Rebroadcast): Millions of Americans can’t afford rent and only a quarter of those who need government help get it. What happens to everyone else? For many, it means they live in squalor. But figuring out who’s responsible is harder than you think. In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan heads to Dallas where the city, low income residents and a prominent landlord sometimes described as a slumlord, become the moving pieces in a century-and-a-half old problem. This episode was done in collaboration with NPR. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

42 min listen

Living With Murder: Part Two: At 15, after committing a brutal murder, Kempis Songster was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But now he has a chance to be free, thanks to a series of recent Supreme Court rulings that found the sentences of thousands of inmates who, like Songster, committed their crimes as juveniles, to be unconstitutional. This is Part Two of his story. It was produced by Samantha Broun and Jay Allison. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

40 min listen

Bribing Doctors, Making Millions: How a drug company made millions pushing an opioid painkiller up to 100x stronger than heroin, as many on Wall Street looked the other way. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

29 min listen

Living With Murder: Part 1 (Rebroadcast): At 15, after committing a brutal murder, Kempis Songster was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But now he has a chance to be free, thanks to a series of recent Supreme Court rulings that found the sentences of thousands of inmates who, like Songster, committed their crimes as juveniles, to be unconstitutional. This episode produced in collaboration with Transom.org. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

47 min listen

Boom Town: In 2016, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma, severely damaging the town. Cushing isn’t the type of place that’s supposed to have such a problem with earthquakes. Until about 2009, they only had one or two a year. But in the last few years, tied to an increased use of wastewater disposal (a by-product of the oil industry) the number of earthquakes has risen dramatically, and now Cushing, along with much of Oklahoma, shakes hundreds of times a year. * Cushing is a major hub of American oil — known as “the pipeline crossroads of the world,” the Keystone XL and 13 other major pipelines run beneath it, and above ground, the town stores tens of millions of barrels of oil in its tank farms. Oil is the town’s economic lifeblood, and so the big quake, and the question of who to hold responsible for it, caused real division between neighbors. In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, reporter Sandy Tolan goes to Cushing to find out how the earthquake by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

35 min listen

The Transparency Project: Rudy Giuliani: As part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

30 min listen

Notes from an Invisible War: Children describing the sounds that bombs make as they fall. Streets covered with rotting garbage. Doctors and nurses who have gone months without pay, at hospitals struggling to care for an influx of cholera patients and malnourished infants. In Yemen, two-plus years of airstrikes by a coalition being led by Saudi Arabia and receiving weapons and tactical assistance from the United States, have led to what the United Nations has called the “largest humanitarian crisis” in the world. FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith and his team witnessed chaos on a rare trip inside the country, a peek inside a largely invisible war. Few foreign journalists are given permission to enter Yemen. “People are not seeing what’s going on. We’re talking thousands of civilian dead,” said Smith. “Notes from an Invisible War” was reported by Martin Smith and Sara Obeidat and produced for the podcast by Michelle Mizner and Sophie McKibben. The reporting for this story was done as p by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

16 min listen

Struggling for Breath in Coal Country: In Appalachia, more than 2,000 coal miners are suffering from advanced black lung disease, caused by toxic dust in the mines. Reporter Howard Berkes spoke with dozens of miners with varying stages of the disease about how it has irrevocably changed their lives. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

15 min listen

Never Sentenced, Never Released: Across the country, hundreds of people are in prison even though they weren’t convicted of the alleged acts that landed them there. Sometimes, they’re held for decades. Today, the story of one such man. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

38 min listen

KIDS' SPECIAL: Muzamil's Day: In this special episode for kids, FRONTLINE follows a day in the life of Muzamil, a 12-year-old Somali boy growing up Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp. Producer Bianca Giaever and Reporter Roopa Gogineni bring him questions from American kids about what it’s like growing up in a refugee camp. Are there dentists? A fire department? What is your dreamland? Muzamil takes us through his daily life, answering questions from American kids along the way. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

22 min listen

Life & Death in the Bronx: In the Bronx, as the coronavirus is disproportionately killing black and Latino people, COVID-19 is swelling the ranks of the dead — and also upending how loved ones grieve. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

33 min listen

Covering Coronavirus: Seattle, Washington: Lessons learned from Seattle — an epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

20 min listen

Warnings to the White House: Inside the Trump administration’s coronavirus response — and missed opportunities to contain COVID-19. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

27 min listen

The Housing Fix: Millions of Americans can’t afford rent and only a quarter of those who need government help get it. What happens to everyone else? For many, it means they live in squalor. But figuring out who’s responsible is harder than you think. In this episode of the FRONTLINE DISPATCH, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan heads to Dallas where the city, low income residents and a prominent landlord sometimes described as a slumlord, become the moving pieces in a century-and-a-half old problem. This episode was done in collaboration with NPR. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

42 min listen

The Transparency Project: Carol Moseley Braun: As part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

27 min listen

I Don't Want To Shoot You, Brother: A young black man was dead. A young white cop was quickly fired. If that sounds surprising, you don’t know the half of it. This is a shocking story about police and the use of lethal force. Just not the one you might expect. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

49 min listen

Making "The Choice": Before America votes, what can Biden and Trump’s responses to past crises — both personal and political — tell us about how they might lead the United States through a time of national turbulence? by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

32 min listen

Blood and Power in the Philippines: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has led to the deaths of thousands of alleged drug users and dealers. Yet he remains hugely popular. We investigate his rise to power. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

33 min listen

Covering Coronavirus: Cremona, Italy: A reporter’s emotional journey back to her homeland in Italy, now the global epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

19 min listen

The Transparency Project: Mary Trump: As part of Frontline’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

48 min listen

Living With Murder: Part 2 (Rebroadcast): At 15, after committing a brutal murder, Kempis Songster was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But now he has a chance to be free, thanks to a series of recent Supreme Court rulings that found the sentences of thousands of inmates who, like Songster, committed their crimes as juveniles, to be unconstitutional. This is Part Two of his story. This episode was a collaboration with Transom.org. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

40 min listen

The Weight of Dust: Scott Gaines was a first responder on 9/11. When he retired a couple months later, he thought he’d escaped the aftermath unscathed. This time on The FRONTLINE Dispatch, a story about the lasting impacts of 9/11 – told by his daughter, reporter Amy Gaines. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

51 min listen

A Mother & Her Newborn Separated by COVID-19: How the coronavirus separated a mother from her newborn baby, and the schoolteacher who stepped in to help the family in their time of need. by The FRONTLINE Dispatch

16 min listen

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A Life Sentence: Victims, Offenders, Justice And My Mother

A Life Sentence: Victims, Offenders, Justice And My Mother

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