Professor Geraghty-Rathert Interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter About a WILLOW Project Case
March 08, 2023
Webster University Law, Crime and Social Justice Professor Anne Geraghty-Rathert is
featured in the latest edition of the popular podcast “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Freleng.” Geraghty-Rathert, who is a practicing lawyer, is interviewed about her work
through the WILLOW Project to overturn the conviction of Amelia Bird.
The WILLOW (Women Initiate Legal Lifelines to Other Women) Project was founded by Geraghty-Rathert to help provide legal services to underserved women. It also runs a food pantry on Webster University’s main campus for students.
“I am extremely grateful to Maggie Freleng and her team for taking on Amelia's case for their podcast and for taking her seemingly hopeless situation so seriously. In the wrongful conviction world, women's claims of factual innocence are frequently overlooked because the cases, once litigated, are difficult to disprove,” Geraghty-Rathert said. “Systemic sexism and flawed gender assumptions in the interpretation of evidence can lead to the wrongful charging of crimes and to findings of guilt that do not accurately reflect reality. I am honored to have worked alongside the podcast team to bring Amelia's story to the forefront; it is a story that needs to be heard and understood.”
Freleng, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter based in New York and an adjunct professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, produces the podcast for the Lava Network, which hosts seven monthly shows. Currently, Lava generate about 35 million downloads per month for the podcasts.
In the most recent podcast, Freleng discusses the case of Amelia Bird, a teenager who was convicted as a co-conspirator in the murder of her mother and attempted murder of her father by her ex-boyfriend. Geraghty-Rathert is Bird’s attorney and is interviewed as part of the program.
Links to the podcast, as well as an introductory video from Freleng about the case, can be found in the following locations:
Freleng will feature another one of Geraghty-Rather’s clients – Amanda Busse – at the end of March. That story will also feature Geragthy-Rathert and will be part of the Lava “Wrongful Convictions with Maggie Freleng” series.