Crime & Law Enforcement

Criminal defense attorney Johnnie Cochran died Tuesday at age 67 of cancer, after having been diagnosed in 2003 with an inoperable brain tumor. In 1995, Cochran won O.J. Simpson a not-guilty verdict in the slayings of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Over the years, Cochran defended celebrities as well as lesser-known individuals. He represented football great Jim Brown, as well as rappers Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Sean Combs. (Originial airdate: 10/10/96)

He'll address the strict drug regulations that put Elaine Bartlett, the subject of the book, Life on the Outside, in jail. The regulations are known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Clyne is the son of Albany County judge John Clyne, who handed Bartlett a sentence of 20 years to life in state prison.

Four months after he became a Los Angeles police officer, he shot and killed a suspect. Now he's a professor at the University of Missouri. He's just written a book about police shootings — why they happen, how cops train to avoid them, and what shootings do to officers who pull the trigger. It's called Into the Kill Zone: A Cop's Eye View of Deadly Force.

Lawyer, former federal prosecutor and best-selling novelist Scott Turow. Last month, before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of all inmates on the state's Death Row. Turow served on the governor's commission to evaluate capital punishment. Turow's latest book is Reversible Errors.

Lake County State's Attorney Mike Waller, who served on former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's commission to evaluate capital punishment.

Founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program, Gerald Shur, and journalist Pete Earley. They've collaborated on the new book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program (Bantam Books). Shur started the program in the 1960s after realizing that many witnesses would not testify because they were afraid of being killed as a result. WITSEC assigns a new identity and relocates witnesses and their dependents. Witnesses have included everyone from mobsters to drug traffickers to terrorists in the first world trade center bombing. Shur headed the program for 34 years.

We speak with two people involved with "Youth Portraits," a radio skills training program for ex-offenders released from Riker's Island prison in New York City. Riker's Island is the biggest jail in North America. "Youth Portraits" is a joint project of Friends of the Island Academy and Sound Portraits Productions. First, we hear from Andre Vaughn, a 21-year-old ex-offender who was released from Riker's and became involved with the "Youth Portraits" program. He was caught stealing at the age of 17 and subsequently served three sentences.

We speak with Clinton Lacy, a longtime program director of Friends of the Island Academy. FOIA was founded in 1989 by the first principal of the high school on Riker's Island. The program is designed to break the cycle of return to Riker's by providing education and counseling. Each year, FOIA works with 350 young people.

Former Chicago policewoman Gina Gallo. While she was part of the force, she also wrote about her work in columns for NYCop online magazine and Blue Murders online magazine. They were collected in the book Crime Scenes (Blue Murder Press). She has a new memoir, Armed & Dangerous: Memoirs of a Chicago Policewoman

Literary forensics expert Don Foster. Named the first literary detective of all time, he uncovered the identity of Joe Klein as the Anonymous writer of 1996’s “Primary Colors”. His new book is “Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous” (Henry Holt, Inc.) which details the techniques he uses to identify writers behind anonymous books and documents. He teaches English at Vassar College.