← All Cases / Episode #10
The Case of Jason Flom on Christmas Behind Bars: A Special Episode with Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams, and Jeffrey Deskovic
📻 Episode #10
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Dec 12, 2016
About This Episode
In this special episode, Jason Flom talks to Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams and Jeff Deskovic about what it's like for an innocent person who is forced to spend the holidays in prison. Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, who died from knife wounds in the apartment…
The Case
In this special episode, Jason Flom talks to Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams and Jeff Deskovic about what it's like for an innocent person who is forced to spend the holidays in prison. Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, who died from knife wounds in the apartment she shared with Amanda in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Amanda and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both found guilty of killing Kercher, receiving 26- and 25-year prison sentences, respectively. Their convictions were subsequently overturned in 2011 and Amanda was released from prison after serving four years. In early 2014, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that they should both stand trial again and she and Sollecito were re-convicted. Finally, in March 2015, the Italian Supreme Court overturned both murder convictions, ending their eight-year ordeal. Jarrett Adams was 17 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman at UW-Whitewater in 1998. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison and spent close to a decade incarcerated before his conviction was reversed with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project on the basis that trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to present the testimony of a critical witness. Jarrett graduated from Loyola Law School in May 2015 and is currently practicing law in New York and advocating for criminal justice reform. Jeffrey Deskovic was a 16-year-old high school sophomore when he was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a high school classmate in 1991. Although hair and semen samples taken from the scene did not match Jeff’s DNA, he aroused the suspicion of detectives by weeping openly at the victim’s funeral. After six hours of intense interrogation, Jeff confessed to the crime, though he later contended in a lawsuit that police investigators had fed him the details of the killing and promised him that if he admitted guilt, he would not go to prison but would instead get psychiatric treatment. With the help of The Innocence Project, Jeff Deskovic was exonerated and released in 2006 after DNA analysis linked convict Stephen Cunningham to the crime and Cunningham confessed.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
00:04:30“Speaker 1: I refuse to be sympathetic and admit to a rape Speaker 1: that I didn't commit, and the judge told me that Speaker 1: I was being not being remorseful, and she gave me Speaker 1: an additional eight years in prison. This eight years and Speaker 1: the significance of it sent me to do time in”
00:19:02“Speaker 3: near enough telephone, so it was almost impossible to get Speaker 3: on the phone and make a phone call. I would Speaker 3: say the same thing was true on Christmas, one of Speaker 3: the bright spots there, because it wasn't I mean, it Speaker 3: was horrible, but there were a few bright spots here”
00:31:24“Speaker 1: So I got it and I was just so thankful. Speaker 1: And I'm calling the house and no one is picking up, Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, where are they at? You know, Speaker 1: I'm trying to get in touch with them. And so Speaker 1: I'm laying, you know, on my bunk, and I'm going”
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Listen on Omny / the podcast's platforms
Resources & links from the episode:
Share this case, follow the organisations working on it, and support the podcast's fight for the innocent at lavaforgood.com.
← #9 Michael Morton #11 Sedrick Courtney →
Also on the podcast: #1 Jason Flom and Barry Scheck with Barry Gibbs · #17 Jason Flom and Barry Scheck with Jason Baldwin · #41 Jeffrey Deskovic