Hannah’s Reviews > The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us > Status Update

“The stories we tell about the worst of humanity are a reflection on all of us. True crime is the antithesis of the notion that we are more than our crimes. It turns back the clock and replays the worst moments of someone’s life, reconstructs and reenacts it all for entertainment, usually by exploiting the people most affected by the violence — victims whose wounds haven’t healed, perpetrators who…

… of my story. It brings me back to my earlier question: does illuminating human darkness increase the desire for punishment? I’m now convinced that one thing, more than anything else, is keeping me in prison: true crime…
The good vs evil binary is lazy storytelling. It’s also an inaccurate depiction of why violence occurs.”

“The prosecutors on the panel were split on my petition. According to one of his deputies, DA González was ‘really spooked’ by the Inside Evil episode. When the governor’s clemency folks took a meeting with my legal team, most of their questions fixated on Inside Evil too. It devastated me. I couldn’t believe that people at the highest levels of government were so influenced by this lurid rendering of…

“In typical true crime, people who kill are reduced almost entirely to the parts of themselves that supposedly explained what made them kill. The saga ends at the crime and punishment phase, but that’s only half the story. I contend that the lives lived in prison after a crime are just as fascinating and important as those that were spiraling before it.”

“What does it mean for a swath of Americans to fall asleep to murder? What are the consequences of illuminating human darkness? Does it increase our desire for punishment? Does true crime hinder the progress of criminal justice writers and activists, reformers and policy makers?”