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The Case of Brandon Spencer
📻 Episode #504
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Dec 23, 2024
About This Episode
On Halloween night in 2012, shots rang out at a party on the campus of the University of Southern California. Four people were injured and no one died. Prosecutors went after 19-year-old Brandon Spencer for the crime. Despite the fact that Brandon had no criminal record and was known for his involvement in sports and…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On Halloween night in 2012, shots rang out at a party on the campus of the University of Southern California. Four people were injured and no one died. Prosecutors went after 19-year-old Brandon Spencer for the crime. Despite the fact that Brandon had no criminal record and was known for his involvement in sports and community activities, prosecutors claimed he was seeking revenge in a gang feud and charged him with attempted first degree murder. They relied heavily on witness testimony that was later found to be flawed. Yet and still, he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years to life.
https://www.instagram.com/freebrandonspencer/?hl=en
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https://theinnocencecenter.org/about-us/
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:40“Speaker 2: acquitted of beating Rodney King, a black man, the city Speaker 2: erupted in anger. Protesters took to the streets and rioted Speaker 5: The heart of every American aches at the side of Speaker 5: the violence, deaths, and hundreds of millions of dollars of Speaker 5: destruction in Los Angeles. Yesterday, the violence spread to Atlanta, Seattle,”
00:19:07“Speaker 1: Are we playing right now? Pretty serious? Speaker 3: Do you think the jury was thinking like, well, even Speaker 3: if he didn't do this, he's in a gang, so Speaker 3: he did something. Speaker 1: Bad exactly, I could kill Looking at my jury that”
00:33:17“Speaker 2: She's also going to look into more DNA testing since Speaker 2: science has advanced, and of course regular shoe leather investigation. Speaker 4: It's my hope to track down some of the people Speaker 4: that were involved so we can talk to them directly. Speaker 4: The security guards from the USC. They were pretty significant”
Listen to the Episode
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← #503 Jason Flom and Barry Scheck with Barry Gibbs #505 Fernando Bermudez →
Also on the podcast: #329 Brandon Woodruff · #484 Ben Spencer · #512 Charles "Brandon" Martin