Law is alive. It doesn’t live in books and words. It thrives in how well we understand and apply it to everyday life.
We ask questions, find answers, and publish what we discover in feature episodes and live storytelling.
Reporter Nancy Mullane chronicles the day Curtis Penn was released from prison.
17 Min
Sep 26, 2018
Are tacky lawyer ads trashing the profession or simply making it more easily accessible to those who might not otherwise know who to call when they need an attorney?
22 Min
Jun 26, 2018
The Law and Society Association’s annual conference just came to an end, and we were happy to find the scholars and researchers engaging challenging and inspiring legal questions.
6 Min
Jun 19, 2018
This week, our team meets up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to see if we can sort out the answers to the question - genetic testing - promise or peril?
Some two decades ago, filmmaker Andrew Nicols wrote and directed GATTACA a sci-fi movie that presented a future in which individuals and society were at risk from having gained access to, and control of, our genetic code.
Mothers, brothers, sons and daughters in cities across the country are suffering from the loss of a loved one to police use of fatal force. Is there a way, under the law, to prevent these deaths from happening in the future?
Police throughout the US shoot and kill unarmed people, in Sacramento, Detroit, New Orleans and Madison. One mother of a biracial teen who was shot and killed by a local police officer, kept an audio diary following her son's death.
This week we present Live Law: IPO - stories from people living with the rapid fire shifts that come with tech in the Bay Area
This week, Life of the Law presents a new INSIDE SAN QUENTIN episode - a conversation inside San Quentin produced exclusively by men incarcerated inside the prison.
Our production team discusses the making of the series UGANDA, children in conflict zones, and what justice has come to represent, so many years after the crisis began with guest Kim Seelinger.
Reporter Gladys Oroma presents the third part of our special series following the lives of Beatrice Ocwee and Samuel Akena, two of the thousands of children who were abducted from their homes in northern Uganda and held captive by LRA rebels.
Reporter Gladys Oroma presents Part 2 of our special series following the lives of two of the thousands of children who were abducted beginning in the mid 1980's and continuing through 2008.
Today man named Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. The 42 year old Ugandan is charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda.
On Saturday night, Dec 5, 2015 more than 200 people filled the pews of the Catholic chapel inside San Quentin State Prison for a first-ever uncensored storytelling event behind the prison walls.
More than two million Americans will spend the holidays locked up in a jail or prison. In the Bay Area, volunteers spend a few hours inside San Quentin State Prison's cell blocks singing holiday songs with the men. It's an annual tradition.
What matters in the end, on election day, is who has the right to vote and who goes to the polls to cast their ballot.
Reporter Megan Marrelli tells the story of Dennis Rickett and his life without a photo ID.
This week, our team goes IN-STUDIO with Jose "Chito" Vela, the young man's immigration attorney and now candidate for the Texas State Legislature, to talk about immigration, DACA, and life in America one year into the Trump Presidency.
We share the story of Luis and at the end of the episode, talk to his attorney and his mother, to find out what has happened since we first met him two years ago.
All over the world people create. Music, art, literature. But is their creative work protected?
Can someone really own an image, or own a song? Here in the United States, the answer is yes, absolutely. But that isn’t the case everywhere.
It all started out as a plan to steal some comic books, sell them and split the cash. That was before a busted lip, a heart attack, and federal prosecutors stepped in.
Twenty-one years ago, at the age of 19, Greg Eskridge was sentenced to 65 years-to-life plus two life terms in prison. Greg's mom, Patricia Eskridge, was in the courtroom that day to hear the judge announce what, in many ways, would be her future.
This is a story about how radio regulation has evolved over its one-hundred year history, and whose interests that regulation serves.
Tonia Miller lost control and shook her baby to death. That’s what prosecutors said. Miller denied it, but a Michigan jury wasn’t convinced and convicted her of murder.
"There’s nothing like coming inside prison to help put things in perspective." – Zoe Mullery, Creative Writing Instructor
The TV ad was on every station -- cable, network -- nonstop all the time for ten days. It was carpet bombing by TV ad. -- Justice Robin Hudson
Never before has a sitting justice not won re-election in Kansas. But 2016 is a different sort of election year.
Douglas Collier is serving a life sentence inside San Quentin State Prison. For years he shared a 9x4 foot cell with his friend Tony, a fellow inmate.
Each summer, people from all around the country gather for the Soros Justice Fellowship Conference.
What do you eat for breakfast? A bit of steel cut oatmeal with warm milk. Yogurt with fresh fruit. And when you sit down to eat do you think about where it all comes from? That might be a problem for the people who work to make your breakfast possible.
If you break the law and are sent to prison as a teen, how long do we wait to give you another chance? This week on Life of the Law, reporter Brenda Salinas tells us Ashley Ervin's story.
For 22 years, Philadelphia FIGHT has hosted an entire month of free workshops, trainings, and outreach about HIV and AIDS.
Through Clemency, Obama has commuted the sentences of 348 people. Fifty three year old Ramona Brant was serving a life sentence at the Metropolitan detention sentence in New York City. This is her story.
This month, we’re presenting a special summer series of the best and the brightest NEW VOICES in investigative reporting and audio production. Ariel Ritchin at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has taken a hard look at posting bail.
Marrying the person you love is the ideal, right? So what happens when you finally get to do that, only to have the government tell you, never mind, your marriage doesn’t count.
Twenty-seven years ago "Lady J" was sent to prison to serve a life sentence. On May 25th, "Lady J" and Life of the Law's Executive Producer sat on a wall inside San Quentin State Prison and talked about her life as a transgender woman.
What’s it like to be a scholar? Life of the Law traveled to New Orleans for the Law and Society Association’s annual meeting.
France has been under a “state of emergency” since November, raising questions about the appropriate balance between security and civil liberties.
When should a judge step aside? As more and more money floods into judicial elections across the nation, states are grappling with this question.
There are 28 judicial emergencies on federal courts throughout the country. So why aren’t there more judges on the court?
Domestic oil drilling offers private landowners the promise of riches in their own backyard. But what if you don’t want to live next door to an oil well? Who do you call? Depends on who has the ear of the court.
This week on Life of the Law, we’re bringing you a special production of stories told live about the law from our show in Nashville Tennessee.
Life of the Law invited scholars who have studied eugenics to join us in the studios at KQED in San Francisco to talk about eugenics, past and present.
Beginning in 1907, states in the US began to forcibly sterilize over 60,000 Americans.
In Kansas, schools have become the staging ground for a debate about the role of government and how much money the state should put into public schools.
By 2050 the state’s population is expected to double--and most of that growth will be come from the Latino community. How are all of these voter ID laws impacting who votes today in the US, and who will have access to the polls in the future?
An encounter with border patrol agents one night in 2013 changed the life of one undocumented immigrant, forever.
For a jury, no decision is more fateful than when it comes down to assigning a sentence of life in prison...or the death penalty.
On Saturday night, Dec 5, 2015 hundreds of people filled the chapel at San Quentin State Prison for a first-ever uncensored storytelling event behind the prison walls.
We all know if you break the law, you might find yourself in prison doing time. But what about after you’ve done the time? What happens then when you come home? Today on Life of the Law, we have the story of Troy Williams.
When you look up at the sky the last thing you probably think about is the law. But space is exactly where the next frontier of law is being played out.
We also host live storytelling events all over the country where we ask people to tell a story about a time when their life got entangled with the law. A couple of weeks ago, we took our live storytelling show to Brooklyn.
Jury Duty. It’s one of the pillars of our democratic society. If you are charged with a crime, a jury of your peers will determine your innocence or your guilt. But who selects the jurors?
It’s been over 60 years, but Henrietta Massey still remembers Jim Thorpe’s funeral. His first funeral.
According to data from the FBI, in 2014, 51 officers were killed in the line of duty, ten during a traffic stop.
We all commit little crimes all the time. We speed. We jaywalk. We drive home a little tipsy. And think back to your teenage years—did you ever shoplift? Get into a fight? Have a drink before you were of age? Do any illegal drugs?
Have you ever had a police officer from your town, live on your block? The answer is likely, no. And there’s a good chance that your local beat cop doesn’t even live in the city they patrol—they likely commute out to the suburbs when their shift is over.
Prison disciplinary hearings are what happen when you get in trouble in prison.
Couples who want babies but can’t have them naturally are increasingly turning to surrogacy instead of adoption. And in many countries, the business of providing surrogates is big business.
"When I first meet Frank Abramovitz, he’s wearing a leather Harley Davidson hat and jeans that are a little too short. He has bright blue eyes and a gold hoop in his ear. He’s 75 years old, and he’s the first bounty hunter I’ve ever met."
Deborah was one of a dozen women I spoke with a for a qualitative research study on how women react to solitary confinement.
Did Lee Harvey Oswald really do it? It remains the great American cold case. And every decade since, someone’s made a film that presents the available evidence and tries to come up with an answer.
Serial fans aren’t the only ones using the internet to try to solve crimes. There is an army of amateur sleuths all over the country trying to crack cold cases.
Are aggressive, expensive elections corrupting the court system? Or are they evidence of a strong democracy?
Nearly half the country now has some form of legal medical marijuana and four states have legalized recreational use of marijuana, as well. There’s a lot of money to be made.
Under federal law, employees are entitled to things like minimum wage, unemployment, workers compensation, and Social Security. Independent contractors don’t get any of that, so they’re a lot cheaper.
In 1980, there was a triple murder at the Fairlanes Bowling Alley in Houston, Texas. It happened during the worst crime wave to ever hit the city.
By developing relationships with their clients, midwives say they can help each women determine how and where they want to give birth, whether in a hospital, a birthing center or in their own home.
I have always been so impressed by lawyer commercials on TV, and by impressed I mean…totally confused.
If you’re a parent, diapers are the only thing that stands between your baby’s bowel movements and, well, everything you own. You’ll probably spend at least a thousands dollars on them, per kid.
Life of the Law looks back over some of our favorite stories from the year: The ones that left us hopeful.
This is the story of one couple and the 48-hour conjugal visit they share once a month inside San Quentin State Prison.
How does the law catch up with a new business model that is already widely in use?
This year, the Endangered Species Act is at the center of a debate that will determine how that landscape looks in the future -- and whether wolves will still live there.
It turns out the process of making a laws isn’t always as logical as might think.
What does a pardon mean 82 years after the fact? And what does forgiveness look like after so many years?
On this episode of Life of the Law, what the law means to comics, and what they do when it can’t help them.
