Jason Flom | |
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 Jason Flom with Lorde, 2013 | |
| Born | c. 17 Feb 1961 |
| Occupation(s) | CEO, Lava Music, podcaster, philanthropist |
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Jason Flom (born c. 1961)[ citation needed ] is an American music industry executive, podcaster and philanthropist. He is the founder of Lava Records, and was previously the chairman of Atlantic Records and Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group. He is also an advocate for those who have allegedly been wrongfully convicted. [1]
In 1979, while a college freshman at New York University, Flom got a job as a trainee field merchandiser at Atlantic Records hanging record posters in stores. [2] In 1981, he moved to the sales research team and, in 1983, into Atlantic's A&R department. [2] At 20, Flom departed NYU to work full-time at Atlantic. Bands he signed at the time included Skid Row. [3] In mid April 1994 Jason listened to Hootie & The Blowfish's debut album and said it was "unreleasable" and tried to pass on one of the all-time best selling albums.
In 1995, Flom launched Lava Records in partnership with Atlantic Records. [4] In 2004, Flom sold Lava Records to Atlantic Records Group, where he was named chairman and CEO of the Atlantic Records Group. [5] Flom was named chairman and CEO of Virgin Records in 2005. In 2007, he led a merger with Capitol Records to create the Capitol Music Group, where he was named chairman and CEO. [6] In 2007 he signed Katy Perry. [7] In 2008, Flom left Capitol Music Group to re-launch his own Lava Records label, this time in partnership with Universal Music Group's Republic Records. [8] In 2013, Flom signed Lorde to Lava, which released her debut single, "Royals". [9]
Flom founded Lava Publishing in 2014, which has published writing from Evan Konrad, [10] Maty Noyes, [11] and all four members of Greta Van Fleet.
In 2018, Flom co-wrote a children's book titled Lulu Is a Rhinoceros with his daughter Allison Flom - a book which follows a bulldog named Lulu who identifies as a rhino. [12]
In 1993, he joined the board of Families Against Mandatory Minimums and soon after became a founding board member of the Innocence Project. [13] As part of his work with the Innocence Project, Flom launched the podcast Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom in 2016. The podcast features interviews with men and women who have spent time in prison for crimes they claim they did not commit and other activists, advocates and experts. [14] [15] Notable guests on the podcast include Kim Kardashian, [16] John Grisham, [17] Meek Mill, [18] Amanda Knox, Raymond Santana, [19] Brendan Dassey, [20] and Rodney Reed, [21] among others. The podcast reached to #7 on the iTunes charts within its first 2 weeks of release, and has since been downloaded over 10 million times. [22]
In 2018, Flom and Jeff Kempler founded Lava for Good. Its podcast series are hosted by human rights and justice experts, activists, attorneys, journalists, as well as formerly incarcerated persons. The Lava for Good lineup includes Wrongful Conviction, [23] Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng, [24] Righteous Convictions with Jason Flom, Bone Valley, [25] The War on Drugs, [26] False Confessions, [27] as well as Junk Science. [28]
2021 saw Lava for Good honored with a Webby Award win in the Crime & Justice category for Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions. [29] In 2022, Lava for Good won a Silver Anthem Award for Human & Civil Rights - Best Strategy. [30] Wrongful Conviction and Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng were honored with Silver [31] and Bronze/Listener's Choice Awards, [31] respectively, at the first inaugural Signal Awards announced in January 2023.
Flom also sits on the board of directors of the Legal Action Center, which uses legal and policy strategies to fight discrimination, build health equity, and restore opportunity for people with criminal records, substance use disorders, and HIV or AIDS. [32]
In 1999, Flom received the Torch of Liberty award from the American Civil Liberties Union. [33] He was named Music Visionary of the Year in 2000 by the UJA Federation. [34] In 2004, The Correctional Association of New York honored him with its social justice award and in 2005 Flom received the T.J. Martell Foundation Humanitarian Award. In 2008, Flom was honored as Partner in Pursuit of Justice by the Bronx Defenders and was awarded with City of Hope's Ambassador Award. [35] He received the Innocence Project's Award for Freedom and Justice in 2009 [36] and the Spirit of Life award by Russell Simmons' Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation in 2014. [37] Flom was honored by The Innocence Project of New Orleans in 2017. [38] At the 2022 Clio Awards, Flom was presented a Clio Music Impact Award for his work in criminal justice reform. [39] In 2023, he was honored at the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work towards criminal justice reform. [40]
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 1% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case.
Lava Records is an American record label owned by Jason Flom, in partnership with Universal Music Group.
A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent people have sometimes ended up in prison for years before their conviction has eventually been overturned. They may be exonerated if new evidence comes to light or it is determined that the police or prosecutor committed some kind of misconduct at the original trial. In some jurisdictions this leads to the payment of compensation.
Innocence Canada, is a Canadian, non-profit legal organization. Based in Toronto, Innocence Canada identifies, advocates for, and helps exonerate individuals who have been convicted of a serious crime which they did not commit and to preventing future wrongful convictions through education and justice system reform.
Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment. Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by opponents of capital punishment, while proponents say that the argument of innocence concerns the credibility of the justice system as a whole and does not solely undermine the use of the death penalty.
Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate convicts are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especially where new evidence is put forth after the execution has taken place. The transitive verb, "to exonerate" can also mean to informally absolve one from blame.
Jens Söring, usually rendered in English as Jens Soering, is a German convicted double murderer.
Jon-Adrian Velazquez also known as "JJ" Velazquez, is an American criminal legal reform activist who was wrongfully convicted of a 1998 murder of a retired police officer. He was serving a 25 years to life sentence at maximum security Sing-Sing prison in New York. His case garnered considerable attention from the media ten years after his conviction, due to a long-term investigation by Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepian and celebrity support from actor Martin Sheen actress Alfre Woodard music executive Jason Flom and entertainment company Roc Nation.
This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.
James Earl Coleman Jr. is an American attorney. He currently serves as the John S. Bradway Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility at the Duke University School of Law. He was the primary member of the last defense team of serial killer Ted Bundy.
Gilbert King is an American writer and photographer, known best as the author of Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (2012), which won the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the writer, producer, and co-host of Bone Valley, the award-winning narrative podcast based on the Leo Schofield case, and released in 2022 by Lava For Good. King's previous book was The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South (2008) and his most recent is Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found (2018).
The California Innocence Project is a non-profit based at California Western School of Law in San Diego, California, United States, which provides pro bono legal services to individuals who maintain their factual innocence of crime(s) for which they have been convicted. It is an independent chapter of the Innocence Project. Its mission is to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates through the use of DNA and other evidences.
Making a Murderer is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in prison (1985–2003) after his wrongful conviction for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. He was later charged with and convicted of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The connected story is that of Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey, who was accused and convicted as an accessory in the murder of Halbach.
Nicholas James Yarris is an American writer and storyteller who spent 22 years on death row in Pennsylvania after being wrongfully convicted of murder.
Truth & Justice is a podcast by Bob Ruff, a former fire chief. Its focus is people who Ruff believes have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. It started as Ruff's investigation into the killing of Hae Min Lee, the subject of the first season of the popular podcast Serial. Ruff says its mission is to "uncover the truth and seek justice for the victims and wrongfully convicted alike."
Christopher Vaughn is an American man convicted of the murder of his wife, Kimberly, and the couple's three children in June 14, 2007. All four members of the family were shot in their SUV while on the way to a Springfield, IL waterpark. Christopher sustained minor injuries to his wrist and leg while the other four sustained fatal gunshot wounds. Prosecutors alleged that he shot his family to live in the Canadian wilderness. Vaughn maintains his innocence and claims that Kimberly shot her family before committing suicide. Wrongful Conviction advocacy group Investigating Innocence is investigating the case.
Lara Bazelon is an American academic and journalist. She is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal & Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics. She is the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles. Her clinical work as a law professor focuses on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.
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