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Crosscurrents

Free At Last, Thanks To A New California Law

Steve Drown
/
Uncuffed
Greg Reed, with Uncuffed producers Spoon Jackson and Damon Cooke.

From the project Uncuffed:

The Reed brothers, Jesse and Greg, came to incarceration as crime partners. Jesse was the shooter and his little brother Greg was just there to rob. They both got life sentences, with the opportunity to parole.

"I knew in my heart, I hadn't murdered anybody. I didn't intend to murder anybody."

Under California’s old “felony murder rule,” if someone died while you were committing a felony, such as a robbery, you were guilty of murder. This year, a law called SB 1437 went into effect. It restricts the felony murder rule to only apply to those who had an intent to kill. Now, people like Greg can be resentenced, and are walking free.

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to Uncuffed in podcast players: WeAreUncuffed.org

KALW’s radio training program in California prisons is supported by the California Arts Council, with funding from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The producers fact-check content to the best of their ability. All content is approved by a prison information officer.

Uncuffed is a project in which KALW editors train incarcerated people to report stories from inside prison. A CDCR official listened to and approved the audio for this story prior to broadcast.

Email KALW's Uncuffed editors.

Write to the Uncuffed producers at Solano State Prison:

UncuffedLevel 3 Education / Media LabP.O. Box 4000Vacaville, CA95696-4000

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Crosscurrents From The Producers Of Uncuffed
Spoon Jackson is a producer of KALW's Uncuffed, presenting stories that show the humanity of incarcerated people.