Welcome! We’re thrilled and excited that you joined us as we celebrate an enormous milestone — our 100th episode of Light ‘Em Up.
This achievement has been 5 years in the making and something we honestly never envisioned accomplishing when we started this project in January of 2020.
Email us here, prizzo7778@rpgconsutingltd.com and let us know how you first heard of us and when you began tuning in to our podcast! Are you a regular listener? Thank you!
Tonight, our focus takes us to the Pelican State of Louisiana (a state where several of our dearest friends reside) as we continue our pursuit of speaking truth to power.
Louisiana is Pro-life. Louisiana is pro-death penalty. We call hypocrisy on this!
Louisiana has enacted some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, effectively banning the procedure in nearly all circumstances with only very limited exceptions and no provisions for rape or incest — creating significant obstacles for those seeking abortion care.
The same lawmakers that have gone this far to stress their “pro-life” credentials then turn around and sound almost bloodthirsty in their support for capital punishment, which is, after all, the ending of a human life.
How does one reconcile these hypocritical, polar opposites?
We’ve got our hip-waders on and we’re going’ deep to examine this contradiction.
Are we picking a fight? No! We’re turning the spotlight on how the good people of Louisiana have adopted a rather puzzling set of policies.
In other words, how does a state so hostile to a woman’s right to choose to have a medical procedure performed on her body, which proudly boasts of its hostility to abortion and calls itself “pro-life” because of it, at the same time not only permits capital punishment, but boasts of it, and goes so far as to adopt an experimental method of choking the life out of a condemned prisoner as to pump pure nitrogen into his body?
Louisiana currently has 55 people on death row.
The state just recently resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus.
We’ll confront as best we can with the time we have issues asking:
— Does the death penalty deter crime?
— We’ll examine the 8th Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail or fines, and cruel and unusual punishments.
— Is the death penalty applied in a grotesquely unfair, arbitrary and capricious manner that disproportionately impacts individuals of color?
Does your:
— race,
— socio-economic status,
— who you kill and
— where you kill them (geographically) play MORE of a role in getting the death penalty than anything else?
Ultimately, examining and asking:
— Should the death penalty be abolished?
All this and many, many more germane and critical questions … on topic as we challenge your critical thinking skills and abilities.
It’s a matter of life or death and we’ll unpack all of it right here and right now on this historic and memorable 100th episode of Light ‘Em Up!
How can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty?
Louisiana: Pro-life, pro-death penalty, hypoxia and hypocrisy.
Tune in for all the powerful facts and figures.
Follow our sponsors Newsly and Feedspot.
Drop us a note to say hello and suggest a future podcast episode.
Let us know what we are doing well and what we need to fix or address.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.