Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated is at once a tale as old as time - a true believer learns the hard way that the costs of lofty ambition and hubris just might outweigh even the most optimistic upside - and a thoroughly modern story of technology overtaking the very people it is meant to serve. In this case: the ubiquitous electric gun carried by cops everywhere and inspiring comedic shenanigans in movies like The Hangover.

Host and documentarian Nick Berardini has been obsessed with this story for his entire adult life. With Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated, he left no stone unturned.

Taser, Inc., now known as Axon, the 800-pound gorilla in the paramilitary police equipment industry, is led by its charismatic CEO and co-founder, Rick Smith. Fueled by a self-described religious dedication, Smith’s Star Trek obsession, and an ambitious vision of a world without gun violence, Rick leads Taser, Inc. to be the key tech supplier to virtually every police force in America. But as stories of alleged misuse, deaths, and serious injuries from Tasers begin to emerge, Taser, Inc. and Rick arrive at a crossroads between Rick’s vision and reality, with cops and the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect paying the price.

Absolute, Season 1: Taser Incorporated is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 18, 2001, a woman returned home from church to a man burglarizing her apartment in Thunderbolt, GA. While wearing a pair of batting gloves, the man proceeded to sexually assault her and steal various items. In the days following, police found those items in the residence of a man named Sterling Flint. When the victim identified Flint as a possible perpetrator, Flint blamed a man named Sonny Bharadia, who had pressed charges against Flint days prior for stealing his car and threatening to kill Sonny and his family. A new photo array was presented to the victim, and she identified Sonny, however that photo array disappeared prior to trial. Nevertheless, Sonny was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

To learn more and get involved, visit:
https://www.instagram.com/sonb1944/
https://healingjusticeproject.org/
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/050-jason-flom-with-ronald-cotton/
https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/act/donate-2/

Wrongful Conviction with Ben Bowlin is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.

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On April 5, 1985, around 11 p.m., a woman exiting her car in her apartment complex parking lot just north of Atlanta, GA was approached by an African-American man. The man asked her if she could help him find "Paul." He then pulled out a gun and told her to move into the passenger seat. He drove to a nearby dead-end street where he raped the victim. After the attack, he drove her back to the parking lot and left on foot. She reported the attack to the police and helped them draw a composite sketch of the perpetrator.

Five days later, another woman exiting her car in her apartment complex was approached by an African-American man. This parking lot was on the same street in the same area as the other crime. The man asked her if she could help him find "Carol." He then put a razor blade to her throat and got in the car. He demanded sex and tried to pull off her clothes. She was able to talk the man into leaving her car. The police showed the second victim the first victim's composite sketch, and the second victim immediately identified the sketch as resembling her attacker.

Later that month, Willie “Pete” Williams, a 23-year-old part-time painter, was in a car pulled over for a traffic violation when police noted that he resembled the composite sketch of a serial rapist in a nearby neighborhood. The officers included Pete in a line-up, and two victims and a witness identified Pete as the perpetrator. The actual rapist was not included in the line-up.

Based solely on faulty eyewitness identification, and despite arguments Pete’s attorney made about an alternate suspect, a jury convicted Pete of rape, aggravated sodomy, and kidnapping. The judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison.

Learn more and get involved at:

https://nacdl.org/

https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.