A deferred deal generally means the person must not commit any other crimes for a period of time before the charge is expunged. His lawyer is spinning this as an exoneration, which it is not.

I wish concern trolls would stop lying to themselves and stop showing out in this and other comment threads. No, you do not care about anyone’s health, you are disgusted by another human being’s body. No, the lack of sexual attraction to someone else does not cause you throw a temper tantrum in any comments section.…

See Ashley Graham and every top plus-sized model. Plus size black women are not given more leeway than non-black women. What you are seeing is the power of Pan African-American culture. Mainstream media tends to mock or dismiss large black women as a “black guy fetish”.

This is awesome, too bad that every comment section on a post about a big lady is full of garbage people

I saw her open for Sleater-Kinney in 2015. And it’s been true love ever since she produced a basket full of baked goods and started throwing cookies into the crowd.

There’s an Asia McLain who is a Buzzfeed contributor, but I don’t see an Asia McClain. 

I feel like it’s not necessary for justice to revisit crimes in entertainment spaces. The criminal justice system isn’t always fair but you know...take to the streets.

I immediately thought of the Knox case too. It’s terrible for the families, but that absolutely can’t trump leaving an innocent person in jail. At least in the Kercher case they know that the actual murder was jailed (though I think he’s out?- which is awful). 

I don’t think the docuseries challenge the system directly, but they definitely make us more likely to hold the system accountable. We get a lof of our information about justice and our faith in its progress from fiction, and shows like Serial are important slaps in the face to the voting electorate that we need to be…

I never understand the attitude of victims’ families as presented in the Lee’s letter. I’d like to think that if someone I was close to was murdered, I’d want to be as close to certain as possible that they catch the right person. But invariably, when they speak up in situations like this, they’re more interested in…

You’re absolutely wrong about that - how can you say it didn’t do any good when the exact reason his case was reopened was because of the interest driven by the podcast? And I’m sorry again, but you don’t get to decide why someone is or isn’t discussing something.  In my opinion, as a person who went to law school and…

Absolutely my point.  Every highly publicized crime is terrible for the family, but it doesn’t mean Adnan isn’t entitled to a robust defense.  And if his defense was constitutionally insufficient, it has to be remedied even if he’s guilty as sin.  That’s the foundation of our judicial system. 

The HBO show isn’t arguing his guilt. I understand why it might sound that way, given the title, but reviews indicate that it gives a more even handed and complete picture than Serial even did. The show includes interviews with Rabia, Susan, and Asia, who have all been advocates in his fight for a new trial. I don’t…

Oh, this! I heard the owl theory on the Criminal podcast. The defense seems to understand the scenario seems far-fetched, but that they don’t need to prove it, just have a jury feel it creates reasonable doubt to absolve their client of guilt.

I binged The Staircase and THEN found out there was an owl theory. It was like my whole weekend was a lie.

That’s a fantastic analogy that I hadn’t thought of. I can’t imagine the incredible pain Kercher’s and Lee’s families are going/have gone through, but justice for them isn’t keeping an innocent person in jail. It’s ensuring the right person is. In both cases, the criminal justice system failed everyone.

I mean, I think that the podcast actually did a ton for Adnan if he is innocent - the exposure certainly helped in landing him a new trial, getting him money/donations for a defense/the interest attention and ultimate representation of better lawyers/more investigation of the facts by tons of different sources, etc.…

I’ve talked about it before:

While I agree that describing the podcast as ‘thrilling’ is a bad take, some of these investigative podcasts have done a lot of good for their subjects when it comes to trying to right the wrongs of the criminal justice system. Beyond Serial, I can point to two podcasts I’ve listened to that did or are inspiring…

I’m reminded of Meredith Kercher’s family, and how difficult it was for them to watch Amanda Knox’s trial become a total circus and then get her appeal and ultimately released. I personally believe Knox is innocent and her first trial was a total sham with an overzealous (to say the least) police and…