Podcast
Rush to Kill
Hosted by WFIU Podcasts · EN
The U.S. government’s sole execution chamber is on the grounds of a prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Isolated from its general population, 44 condemned men are held in the Special Confinement Unit, or America’s death row. In 2020, the Trump administration launched a spree of executions, killing 13 condemned Americans in quick succession. A team of public radio journalists covered each execution in person.
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Update: Biden commutes 37 death sentences
Jan 23, 202500:29:09Tap to summarizeOn Dec. 23, in the final weeks of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted the federal death sentences of 37 prisoners to life in prison without the possibility of parole. All but three death row prisoners received commutations, including several who didn't ask for clemency.Now back in office, President Trump is seeking to restart executions at the high-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal death sentences are carried out. Trump says he also plans to pursue capital punishment in future criminal cases.In this bonus episode, we'll hear from one of the prisoners whose sentence was commuted as well as a woman whose mother was among the victims of a racist attack at a church in South Carolina. Her killer remains on federal death row.—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 8: In The Shadows
Dec 8, 202301:00:39Tap to summarizeIn this final episode, we’ll take a look at the final execution of the Trump administration, which was legally unusual. This episode will also include discussion of the “Shadow Docket” — and why some experts argue that the death penalty is corrupting our legal system, allowing the Supreme Court to make decisions without explaining why.—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 7: Intellectual Disability
Nov 23, 202300:54:01Tap to summarizeIn 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the government from carrying out death sentences of people with intellectual disabilities. But in its final weeks in office, the Trump administration set dates for two intellectually disabled men. Corey Johnson was the second person after Alfred Bourgeois whose attorneys presented evidence he was intellectually disabled.Coming up in the final episode, we'll see how the continued existence of the American death penalty is leaving its mark on our society.—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 6: Culpability
Nov 16, 202300:48:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we meet the people behind a global campaign to save Brandon Bernard. And how 20 years later, they say the experience transformed their beliefs about capital punishment and fairness in the justice system.Coming up in Episode 7:Facing a hard deadline, the U.S. government rushes to carry out two remaining scheduled executions. They both go very wrong.—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 5: Lynch Law
Nov 9, 202300:44:19Tap to summarizeHistorians have long documented how the modern death penalty emerged as a supposed “solution” to the problem of lynchings, racial or otherwise. A method to exact justice behind closed doors, to avoid spectacle. The death penalty is supposed to be a neutral alternative. And yet, at least at the federal level, it depends on who’s in charge.Starting in 2020, the Trump administration swiftly executed 12 men and one woman in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal executions take place. Far more than any administration in modern history. And, curiously, the execution spree initially appeared to spare one typically over-represented demographic: Black men. The feds waited all summer before scheduling the execution of a Black person. But once they started, they didn’t stop; every man selected to die after last summer was Black.A year later, the question remains: why was the execution spree split along racial lines? In this episode, we try to find out.We’ll hear from the first African American targeted by the U.S. government for execution in two decades — and find out why his loved ones threw out the clemency rulebook and took his case directly to the American people. And we’ll hear from experts convinced that justice officials considered race when they selected which people to kill — and when. Why that might be, and what it says about the federal death penalty’s ability to deliver justice, and mercy, without bias.Coming up in Episode 6:What happens when a prosecutor changes her mind and tries to save someone she helped condemn to death?—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 4: Poison
Nov 3, 202300:53:14Tap to summarizeLethal injection is now the primary execution method used by the federal government and all executing states. Often dressed up to resemble a medical procedure, it appears to offer a kinder, more gentle death. But records obtained by NPR and WFIU suggest the federal government's preferred execution chemical caused massive damage to prisoners' lungs and might have caused excruciating pain in their final moments.Coming up in episode 5:Why was the execution spree split along racial lines?—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 3: American Woman
Oct 27, 202300:59:54Tap to summarizeHow are American lawyers prepared to handle clients with severe mental health issues? Does this factor into the decision to place someone on death row? We're digging into the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row. Listen to firsthand accounts from the family members, lawyers and investigators involved in her case.Want to learn more about the Lisa Montgomery case? Watch "A Mother’s Justice: The Trials of Lisa Montgomery"Coming up in episode 4:Lethal injection is thought to be painless and thought to be quick, seemingly the most humane choice. But what if we've got it all wrong?—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 2: Inventing Closure
Oct 19, 202300:38:22Tap to summarizeThis week, we’re looking back to the first executions ever carried out in Terre Haute. The death penalty promises closure, or justice, but does it deliver? And what changes when the victims of a crime number in the thousands?Coming up in episode 3, we’ll take a look at the unusual circumstances surrounding the Lisa Montgomery case.—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Episode 1: The Gold Standard
Oct 13, 202300:45:51Tap to summarizeIn this debut episode: How U.S. justice officials convinced top judges to sign off on a plan to kill 14 condemned Americans in the middle of a pandemic. A shaky legal theory that got the ball rolling. How laws passed decades ago — by people in power today — made it all possible. And why it could happen again.Coming up in episode 2:The death penalty promises closure, or justice, but does it deliver?—Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSSMore podcasts from WFIU
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Introducing: Rush to Kill
Oct 10, 202300:05:03Tap to summarizeAll federal executions in the United States are carried out in Terre Haute, Indiana.Isolated from the facility’s general population, and under extra layers of security, 44 condemned men are held in the U.S. prison bureau’s Special Confinement Unit — America’s death row. But actual executions at that level are extraordinarily rare. For two decades, the U.S. didn’t carry out even one.Everything changed in July 2020, when President Donald Trump’s attorney general instructed the U.S. justice department to reopen the Terre Haute death chamber and start killing people again.To satisfy transparency requirements, the prison bureau allowed a small pool of journalists inside the death chamber to document parts of the execution process. For six months, WFIU sent a team of public radio reporters to Terre Haute over and over to report on each of the 13 executions in person. And when the killing finally ended in January 2021, we kept reporting. For two years, the team collected documents and interviewed sources connected to every execution carried out by the U.S. government since 2001.The federal death penalty is supposed to be the “gold standard” of justice, reserved for the “worst of the worst” offenders. Our reporting found the opposite. Experts believe U.S. prison bureau employees “botched” half or more of the executions, prolonging the dying process and possibly inflicting extreme pain. All of this happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Executions became super-spreader events, sickening prisoners and staff alike throughout the larger complex.For the 44 men on federal death row, the upcoming presidential election is a matter of life and death. Under President Joe Biden there’s a moratorium on federal death sentences, but Biden hasn’t followed through on his campaign promise to repeal the death penalty. That leaves the door open for a Republican candidate to resume executions.George Hale covers federal death row at WFIU. He was part of the public media team that spent six months reporting on the Trump execution spree.Episodes drop every Thursday starting Oct. 12.Rush to Kill is available at wfiu.org/rushtokill, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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