John Allen Muhammad was an American convicted murderer who, along with his partner and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out the D.C. sniper attacks of October 2002, killing ten people. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens. Although the actions of the two individuals were classified by the media as psychopathy attributable to serial killer characteristics, whether or not their psychopathy meets this classification or as a spree killer is debated by researchers.
Diane Alexis Whipple was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26, 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios: a male named Bane and a female named Hera. Paul Schneider, the dogs' owner, is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is serving three life sentence terms in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, a husband and wife who lived in the same apartment building as Diane Whipple. After the fatal attack, the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Robert Noel, who was not present during the attack, was convicted of manslaughter. Marjorie Knoller, who was present, was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction, an unusual result for an unintended dog attack, was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.
Steven Allan Avery is an American convicted murderer from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who had previously been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of sexual assault and attempted murder. After serving eighteen years of a thirty-two-year sentence, Avery was exonerated by DNA testing and released in 2003, only to be charged with murder two years later.
The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering 80.9 square miles (210 km2) of land and 11.1 square miles (29 km2) of waterways. The department is sometimes referred to as the Baltimore City Police Department to distinguish it from the Baltimore County Police Department.
Scott L. Rolle Is a Circuit Court Judge in Frederick County, Maryland. In a close election in late 2014, he was the first lawyer to defeat a sitting judge in Frederick County by way of election in modern history. From 1995-2007 Rolle was the State's Attorney for Frederick County, Maryland. He served three consecutive terms in that position. He is also an actor who co-starred on the television series Brad Meltzer's Decoded that was aired on the History Channel with 23 episodes spanning two seasons. He also landed a role on Lifetime Discovery Channel's "Twisted Fate", the independent films "Substance", "Money Matters" along with other film, television and stage acting credits. Rolle is also a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserves. He serves in the 2nd Legal Operations Detachment located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rolle was deployed to Afghanistan from October 2018 through April 2019 serving as the USFOR-A Chief Investigator for Gross Violations of Human Rights. Upon completion of his tour of duty, he was awarded the Joint Commendation Medal with Combat "C" device, Nato non-article 5 medal, and the Afghanistan Campaign medal with bronze service star.
Brian E. Frosh is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Attorney General of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. He also served five terms in the Maryland State Senate, representing Maryland's District 16 in Montgomery County. Prior to serving in the Senate, Frosh also represented District 16 in the Maryland House of Delegates, serving two four-year terms.
The Daily Record is a statewide business and legal newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland. The paper publishes five days a week, 52 weeks a year, except for certain holidays.
Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by This American Life; as of July 2020, it is owned by The New York Times.
Hae Min Lee was a Korean-American high school student who was last seen alive on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. Her body was found four weeks later in Leakin Park; she had been killed by manual strangulation.
Marilyn Mosby is an American politician and lawyer who served as the State's Attorney for Baltimore from 2015 to 2023. She is currently under federal indictment for multiple crimes.
Maria Cristina Gutierrez was an American criminal defense attorney based in Baltimore, Maryland, who represented several high-profile defendants in the 1990s. She was the first Latina to be counsel of record in a case before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2001, Gutierrez was disbarred, with her consent, following multiple complaints from clients who paid her for legal work she failed to perform. At the time, Gutierrez was dying from a combination of multiple sclerosis and diabetes, and her health was rapidly deteriorating.
Making a Murderer is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in prison (1985-2003) after his wrongful conviction for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. He was later charged with and convicted of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The connected story is that of Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey, who was accused and convicted as an accessory in the murder of Halbach.
Rabia Chaudry is a Pakistani-American attorney, author and podcast host. Family friend of Adnan Syed, subject of the podcast Serial (2014), Chaudry subsequently wrote a book about his case called Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial (2016), which became a New York Times best seller. Chaudry co-hosts Undisclosed, a podcast on Syed's case and others.
Thiruvendran "Thiru" Vignarajah is an American lawyer and politician. He previously was Deputy Attorney General of Maryland. He is a litigation partner at the law firm DLA Piper in Baltimore. He has also been the lead attorney for the State of Maryland in the post-conviction appeals of Adnan Syed, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the high-profile 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee. He has run for Baltimore City attorney twice, and also for Mayor. He was defeated in the primary each time.
Truth & Justice is a podcast by Bob Ruff, a former fire chief. Its focus is people who Ruff believes have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. It started as Ruff's investigation into the killing of Hae Min Lee, the subject of the first season of the popular podcast Serial. Ruff says its mission is to "uncover the truth and seek justice for the victims and wrongfully convicted alike."
Undisclosed is a podcast about wrongful convictions in the United States. It is hosted by Rabia Chaudry, Susan Simpson, and Colin Miller. Rabia Chaudry started it with fellow attorneys Susan Simpson and Colin Miller. The podcast started by investigating the conviction of Adnan Syed for the killing of Hae Min Lee, which had previously been the focus of the first season of the podcast Serial.
The Case Against Adnan Syed is a 2019 true-crime docuseries about Adnan Syed's murder conviction for the killing of Hae Min Lee. It was directed by Amy J. Berg and produced by Working Title Television, among others. The first episode of the four-part series premiered March 10, 2019, on HBO.
Ronald Lee Moore was an American fugitive, murderer, rapist, and suspected serial killer, who murdered at least two women between 1996 and 1999. He was not connected to either murder until over a decade later. In November 2007, while incarcerated at the Baltimore City Correctional Center for burglary, Moore was accidentally released due to a clerical error. He became a wanted fugitive and was featured on the television series America's Most Wanted. Moore was captured on December 24, 2007, but committed suicide by hanging in January 2008 at the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center in Louisiana. After his suicide, DNA testing linked him to other crimes and he was mentioned in the podcast Serial in 2014, as a possible suspect in the killing of Hae Min Lee.
Lara Bazelon is an American academic and journalist. She is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she holds the Barnett Chair in Trial Advocacy and directs the Criminal & Juvenile and Racial Justice Clinics. She is the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles. Her clinical work as a law professor focuses on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.
Ivan Jules Bates is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the State's Attorney of Baltimore since 2023.
