How Did Sarah Baldwin Meet the Criminal James Belter?

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Sarah Baldwin is a mitigation specialist who works to save people from the death penalty. She met James Belter in 2018 when he was given a new sentencing hearing for his crimes. Her work led to more than a dozen meetings where she drove out to Death Road and interviewed him. In early 2022, they set a trial date for Mr. Belcher in the fall.

Should past trauma prevent a convicted killer from being executed? The Marshall Project’s Maurice Chammah reports on “mitigation specialists” who try to save the lives of death row inmates by investigating their histories.

This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Matt Collette, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King.

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