When Innocence Is Not Enough x The Alley Podcast

The Brady rule was meant to transform the U.S. justice system. In soaring language, the Supreme Court decreed in 1963 that prosecutors must share favorable evidence with the defense—part of a suite of decisions designed to promote fairness for those accused of crimes. But reality intervened. The opinion faced many challenges, ranging from poor legal reasoning and shaky precedent to its clashes with the foundations of the American criminal legal system.

In When Innocence Is Not Enough, Thomas L. Dybdahl illustrates the promise and shortcomings of the Brady rule through deft storytelling and attention to crucial cases, including the infamous 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller in Washington, DC. This case led to eight young Black men being sent to prison for life after the prosecutor, afraid of losing the biggest case of his career, hid information that could have proven their innocence.

A new podcast from New America, The Alley explores the 1984 murder case, and the accused men—for the first time, in their own words—recount their decades-long saga with the American criminal justice system that failed them.

Join us on July 30 at 6p to hear from author Thomas L. Dybdahl, podcast producer Shannon Lynch, and award-winning journalist Patrice Gaines—along with six of the accused men—as they revisit the fateful case together.

Copies of When Innocence Is Not Enough will be available for purchase, and the author will be signing books after the event.

This event is free and open to all. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.

Speakers

• Thomas L. Dybdahl, who has degrees in theology, journalism, and law, is a former staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he worked in both the trial and appellate divisions, and tried twenty-five homicide cases. The author of When Innocence Is Not Enough (The New Press), he lives in Boulder, Colorado.
• Shannon Lynch is a podcast producer at New America. Previously, she worked as a producer on various political talk shows at SiriusXM. She holds a master's degree in audio technology from American University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Georgetown University. Shannon was born in DC and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She's been back in DC for 12 years and currently lives in Southeast DC with her dog, Lincoln Douglass.
• Patrice Gaines is an award-wining veteran journalist, an author, and a creative writing and transformation coach. Her best-selling autobiography Laughing in the Dark details her journey from heroin user and abused woman to noted journalist and good mother. Most recently, she co-authored Say Their Names: How Black Lives Came to Matter in America. Ms. Gaines was a reporter at the Washington Post for 16 years and member of a reporting team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She has received prestigious residencies at both Yaddo and MacDowell artists’ communities as well as a Soros Justice Media Fellowship.She has written for National Public Radio, Essence, the New York Times magazine, and numerous other publications. She is the subject of a short film by Chiquita Lockley, “Master Class: The Patrice Gaines Story,” which has been featured at film festivals across the country. Ms. Gaines is also a veteran justice advocate, who has taught and spoken in jails and prisons around the country, and an abolitionist, who believes crime can be reduced without the mass incarceration of human beings.