Arkansas
Arkansas Podcast Launches During Domestic Violence Awareness Month
The brand new Arkansas-based true crime podcast Burden has simply launched. The discharge of the podcast coincides with the beginning of Nationwide Home Violence Consciousness Month, which is in October.
Season 1 of Burden examines the suspicious dying of a younger mom named Billie Jean Letterman in 1991 in Texarkana, Arkansas. She was a sufferer of home violence. The primary episode, “What Occurred To Billie Jean Letterman?,” explores the occasions of the evening Billie Jean was shot. New episodes can be launched each Thursday. The season is predicated on intensive interviews with police, forensic specialists, paramedics, Billie Jean’s household and pals, and others near the case.
Co-hosts Karen Tricot Steward and Stephanie Harris have each labored as journalists in Arkansas, in addition to in communications roles for the Arkansas Supreme Courtroom.
Steward is the proprietor of Energy of Pod, a Little Rock-based podcast manufacturing firm. She is a former reporter and anchor for the NPR affiliate in Central Arkansas, KUAR 89.1, and former Public Training Coordinator for the Arkansas Supreme Courtroom. In 2020, she launched the primary season of Girl Justice: Girls of the Courtroom, a podcast hosted by 4 supreme courtroom justices from totally different states.
“Burden is produced in the immersive NPR fashion of narrative storytelling,” stated Steward. “It examines bigger points inside our felony justice system and society by the lens of 1 story each season. The case we cowl in Season 1 explores violence towards ladies and the numerous elements that went into failing to maintain a lady, Billie Jean Letterman, secure. It examines the devastating results of intimate associate violence and the way home violence crosses generations.”
Ashly Myers, the daughter of Billie Jean Letterman, has been combating for justice for her mom for years. At six years previous, she was in the home the evening her mom was shot.
Harris is an lawyer and has labored as Communications Counsel for the Arkansas Supreme Courtroom. She additionally based Girls Lead Arkansas, a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to empowering ladies to interact in politics, coverage and management.
“I’ve been requested if this podcast goes to be ‘anti-law enforcement,’” stated Harris. “That’s positively not our intention. But when there weren’t failures, there’d be no want for a narrative. The purpose actually is to let these households share their heartaches and frustration, whereas we take a look at it from an investigative perspective. We, after all, benefit from hindsight; however there are critical issues with the instances we plan to cowl.”
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