True Bill Talk

Sherry Boston has served as the District Attorney of DeKalb County, Georgia since 2017. But describing her just as a "local DA" doesn’t capture her full impact. In addition to her work with us here at VPOPP,  she’s active in organizations like her state DA’s association and the National Black Prosecutors’ Association. She’s also the lead plaintiff in a major lawsuit challenging a controversial Georgia law that gives the state power...

Byron Black was recently executed in Tennessee. This is not your typical capital case, however, because the current local district attorney actually agreed with the defense that Mr. Black's death sentence should be commuted to life in prison. However, the Tennessee Attorney General then took over the appeal and pushed for execution anyway.

It's a perfect example of the growing tension between local prosecutors and state officials—...

David Leavitt led the Utah County DA’s office for 4 years before being voted out of office in 2022. David spent four years trying to rein in excessive plea deals, questioning his own office’s outdated norms, and demanding real checks on police power. His approach earned him an intense backlash, and his 2022 re-election campaign became a referendum on the potential and limits of shaking up the status quo - but the real lessons are i...

Recently, with support from Microsoft, VPOPP worked with the Policing Project at NYU School of Law to produce a report about how artificial intelligence (AI) tools are impacting the work of prosecutors around the country. Katie Kinsey, the Policing Project’s chief of staff and tech policy counsel, is a leading voice on what AI can do, should do, and will do in the criminal justice system in the years to come. Simply put, as the tec...

On this episode, Alissa speaks with two women who are reshaping what victim advocacy is and what it could do for our criminal justice system.

Rafiah Muhammad-McCormick became an advocate after her son was killed in her backyard. Today, she works with Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Rodney’s Village, a nonprofit that she founded...

On April 28, 2025, the Trump Administration issued an executive order aimed broadly at local law enforcement -- but one section stood out. Section 5 of the Order represents a statement of how the Administration intends to get involved in decisions made by local prosecutors.

In this special episode of True Bill Talk, we invite two well-known criminal justice scholars – Professors Carissa Hessick (UNC School of Law) and Brenner Fiss...

Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia District Attorney since 2017, has become something of a lightning rod and is now one of the most well-known prosecutors in the entire country. Larry and two of his line prosecutors were recently in Nashville to visit Vanderbilt Law School and speak with our students about careers in prosecution. While they were in town, we recorded this interview in which they discussed their work and views on the cr...