Avi Singh and I are two Indian American public defenders in San Jose, CA who talk current events, criminal justice, the law, pop culture and sports on The Aider & Abettor Podcast.  We hope to provide unique, thoughtful takes on these important topics and want to interject them into our country's discourse.  In particular, we hope to proliferate the public defender perspective on issues impacting our clients and criminal justice system.

In the fifth episode of Aider & Abettor, we discuss the significance of a diverse jury pool, the challenges of getting a representative jury and one proposal (California Senate Bill 576) to collect more data about the diversity (or lack thereof) of our juries. The text of the bill is available online at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billT…720180SB576

In the "Deep Dive" segment, we talk about the music that gets us going during trial. The discussion is broken up into five stages: in limines, jury selection, opening statement, cross examination, and closing argument. In the “Things” segment, Avi recounts a confrontation with a bathroom line-cutter. I share my thoughts about public reactions to the sentence in a Georgia hate crime case and a report on “Pay-to-Stay” jails.  I blogged about these subjects at thesajidakhan.tumblr.com and on the NAPD website.

To listen to the podcast, check out the episode on Sound Cloud: â€‹https://soundcloud.com/user-139217541/look-whos-coming-to-jury-duty-trial-jams-2017