The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers and young men, ages 13 to 20, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a legal injustice in the United States legal system.
FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment unit of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX was originally launched by News Corporation on June 1, 1994, and later became one of the properties that was included in the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney in 2019. The network's original programming aspires to the standards of premium cable channels in regard to mature themes and content, high-quality writing, directing and acting. Sister channels FXM and FXX were launched in 1994 and 2013, respectively. FX also carries reruns of theatrical films and terrestrial-network sitcoms. Advertising-free content was available through the FX+ premium subscription service until it was shut down on August 21, 2019.
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and playwright.
Hulu is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake, until 2024 (1:2). It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series from studios including 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Disney Television Studios, ABC, Freeform, and FX Networks among others, as well as Hulu original programming.
William C. Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, 9 miles (14 km) north of Atmore in southern Alabama.
FX Networks, LLC, is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019. Consequently, FX Networks was integrated into the newly renamed Walt Disney Television unit.
George Stinney Jr., was an African American boy, who at the age of 14 was convicted, in a proceeding later vacated as an unfair trial, and executed, for the murders of two young girls in March 1944 — Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7 — in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by electric chair in June 1944, thus becoming the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century.
Capital punishment in Alabama is a legal penalty. The state has the highest per capita capital sentencing rate in the United States. In some years, its courts impose more death sentences than Texas, a state that has a population five times as large. However, Texas has a higher rate of executions both in absolute terms and per capita.
Richard John Kerry was an American Foreign Service officer and lawyer. He was the father of politicians John Kerry and Cameron Kerry.
Utah v. Lafferty was a 1984 murder case in the U.S. state of Utah. It gained substantial publicity due to the accused persons' statement that the murders were the result of a divine revelation.
Patrick Warren and David Spencer were two English schoolboys who disappeared on 27 December 1996 in the town of Solihull, near Birmingham. Although initially treated by the police as runaways, they are now presumed deceased. Despite a BBC Crimewatch special report on the boys, along with numerous appeals from both their families, the case remains unsolved.
The Daily is a daily news podcast produced by the American newspaper The New York Times, hosted by Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise. Its weekday episodes are based on the Times reporting of the day, with interviews of journalists from The New York Times. Episodes typically last 20 to 30 minutes.
Doyle Lee Hamm was an American death row inmate in Alabama, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1987 murder of Patrick Cunningham, whom he killed while committing a robbery. While on death row, Hamm developed lymphatic cancer, which made it difficult to impossible to achieve the venous access necessary to administer the drugs used in lethal injections. Despite months of warning by Hamm's attorney and human rights observers and a decades' long legal battle, the Alabama Department of Corrections attempted to execute Hamm on February 22, 2018. The unsuccessful execution attempt lasted nearly three hours and drew international attention. In March 2018, Hamm and the state of Alabama reached a confidential settlement, the terms of which precluded a second execution attempt, giving Hamm a de facto sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, although his sentence was not formally commuted. Hamm remained in prison until his death from cancer-related complications in 2021.
Devs is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on FX on Hulu.
Mrs. America is an American historical drama television miniseries produced by FX and originally aired on the sister streaming service FX on Hulu. Created and co-written by Davhi Waller and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Amma Asante, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, and Janicza Bravo, the series details the unsuccessful political movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and the unexpected backlash led by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in the 1970s. It features a large ensemble cast led by Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Margo Martindale, John Slattery, Tracey Ullman, and Sarah Paulson.
A Teacher is an American drama television miniseries created by Hannah Fidell based on her film of the same name. The series stars Kate Mara and Nick Robinson. It is produced by FX and premiered on sister streaming service FX on Hulu on November 10, 2020. Critical reception to the miniseries was generally positive. The characterization of the two leads, performances, pacing, and expansion over the original were largely seen as improvements upon the film, while the ending was generally criticized for its rushed nature, lack of closure, and simple handling of complex issues.
The execution of Nathaniel Woods occurred on March 5, 2020, at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama. The execution was controversial due to skepticism about his culpability and the fairness of his trial. Woods had surrendered inside a crack house during a police raid that attempted to serve a months-old arrest warrant on Woods. Another man came downstairs and opened fire, killing three officers. Woods ran from the scene after the gunfire erupted.
The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Samantha Stark, reported and produced by Liz Day, and produced by Liz Hodes, Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, Ken Druckerman and Stephanie Preiss. The documentary follows the life and career of American singer Britney Spears; her rise to fame as a global music superstar at age 16, her gratuitous and misogynistic treatment by the media and paparazzi, her highly publicized breakdown in 2007, the conservatorship that during 2008–2021 placed her involuntarily under the control of her father Jamie Spears, and the #FreeBritney movement sparked by Spears's fanbase.
Julius Darius Jones is an American prisoner and former death row inmate from Oklahoma who was convicted of the July 1999 murder of Paul Howell. His case has received international attention due to claims of innocence and controversy surrounding his trial and conviction. Jones was convicted of the crime on the basis of what the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals later characterized as an "overwhelming" body of evidence consisting of "a co-defendant who directly implicated Jones, eyewitness identification, incriminating statements made by Jones after the crime, flight from police, damning physical evidence hidden in Jones's parents' home, and an interlocking web of other physical and testimonial evidence consistent with the State's theory." Jones and his defense team maintain that he was at home with his family at the time of the murder and that his co-defendant Christopher Jordan is the true perpetrator of the crime, contending that eyewitness descriptions of the killer better describe Jordan than Jones, and noting that three jailhouse informants have said that they have heard Jordan confess to the shooting. Jones was scheduled to be executed on November 18, 2021. However, four hours before his scheduled execution, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted his sentence to life imprisonment without parole.
