Coverage
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WNYC: The Leonard Lopate Show – June 30, 2011
“…what makes this story so unbelievable is that despite setback after setback, Debbie remains strong with an unwavering spirit that is awe-inspiring. Who are we to complain about our lives after everything this woman has been through?”
-The Huffington Post
“MAGNIFICENT, swelling from hushed to howling without the help of narration or posturing from the unfailingly dignified Ms. Peagler or her quietly dedicated lawyers. There may well be, as one of her lawyers claims, ‘thousands and thousands of Debbies across the U.S.,’ but it is this particular one who makes it difficult to leave the theater with dry eyes and an untouched heart.”
-The New York Times CRITICS’ PICK
“THIS RIVETING AND DEVASTATING DOCUMENTARY follows the sustained efforts of two land-use attorneys who decide to take on the case of a woman incarcerated for years due to her role in the death of an abusive boyfriend. It relates a great miscarriage of justice—but also one of heroic legal perseverance, with a surprisingly colorful cast of characters.”
-New York Magazine CRITICS’ PICK
“MOVING AND INSPIRING…”
-The Washington Post CRITICS’ PICK
“A MUST-SEE MOVIE.”
-The Los Angeles Times
“AN INCREDIBLE INSIDE STORY.”
-San Francisco Chronicle
“IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A BIGGER BOMBSHELL being dropped in the lap
of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office than “Crime After Crime.”
-Variety
“…A TREMENDOUSLY MOVING STORY, strong in social commitment
and deftly woven out of years of footage.”
-The Hollywood Reporter
“POWERFUL.”
-San Francisco Chronicle
Links and/or short excerpts of media coverage are below. To view full stories, we encourage you to visit the websites of the publishers and support these publications.
Movie Spotlight: “Crime After Crime”
“…an emotionally engaging reminder that idealism can triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
Star Tribune
July 28, 2011
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Jewish Film Festival Capsule: “Crime After Crime”
“…an incredible inside story.”
San Francisco Chronicle
July 17, 2011
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Not a woman of constant sorrow (Washington Post Critics’ Pick)
“Some movies prove so eye-opening that a viewer may feel the urge to recount the story, start to finish, to friends and acquaintances. “Crime After Crime” is that kind of film.”
Washington Post
July 15, 2011
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“Crime After Crime” Review (New York Times Critics’ Pick)
“…difficult to leave the theater with dry eyes and an untouched heart.”
New York Times
July 1, 2011
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Short Takes: “Crime After Crime” (4 stars)
“If you’re looking for a movie to shake you to your core, skip “Transformers” and seek out Yoav Potash’s gut-wrenching documentary, instead. He gives us extraordinary heroes and unbelievable villains, mind-bending twists and heartbreaking turns…”
New York Daily News
July 1, 2011
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IN HIS OWN WORDS | Yoav Potash Shares a Scene from “Crime After Crime”
“In Yoav Potash’s first full-length feature documentary, “Crime After Crime,” the filmmaker went to great lengths to follow the epic legal battle to free Deborah Peagler…”
indieWIRE
Jun 29, 2011
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Seeking Justice For Deborah
“Jewish filmmaker and Jewish lawyer take on the case of an abused woman unfairly imprisoned in California…”
The New York Jewish Week
Jun 28, 2011
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Review: Critics’ Pick
This riveting and devastating documentary follows the sustained efforts of two land-use attorneys who decide to take on the case of a woman incarcerated for years due to her role in the death of an abusive boyfriend…
New York Magazine
Jun 26, 2011
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SUNDANCE DOCUMENTARY RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT D.A. STEVE COOLEY’S ROLE IN APPEAL OF 1982 MURDER CASE
“A documentary that presents a withering view of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley’s handling of a controversial murder case premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival…”
The Los Angeles Times
Jan 25, 2011
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SUNDANCE: DOCUMENTING JUSTICE, DENIED
“Potash’s documentary “Crime After Crime” — playing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival — is a riveting examination of justice denied through political manipulation and prosecutorial callousness…”
The Salt Lake Tribune
Jan 25, 2011
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SUNDANCE REVIEW: “CRIME AFTER CRIME”
“This may be the most heartwrenching courtroom drama you’ll see all year.”
The Salt Lake Tribune
Jan 24, 2011
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“CRIME AFTER CRIME” | DIRECTOR, YOAV POTASH
“Making Crime After Crime was full of surprises — which in a way is not so surprising because at least on the surface the film is a legal thriller, a genre that is built on suspense, intrigue and discovery…”
Filmmaker Magazine
Jan 23, 2011
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“CRIME AFTER CRIME” | WHEN THE BATTLE IS PERSONAL
“…By connecting so deeply and intimately with his three main subjects, Potash tells an incredibly beautiful story, powerful and true.”
Hammer to Nail, What to Watch
Jan 23, 2011
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SUNDANCE 2011: MUST-SEE MOVIES | “CRIME AFTER CRIME” BY YOAV POTASH
The Los Angeles Times
Jan 20, 2011
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KQED FM FORUM | Radio interview with “Crime After Crime” director Yoav Potash
KQED FM
Jan 18, 2011
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REALISTICALLY SPEAKING | documentaries at NY Jewish Film Festival
The Jewish Week
Jan 18, 2011
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MEET THE SUNDANCE 2011 FILMMAKERS | “CRIME AFTER CRIME” BY YOAV POTASH
indieWIRE
Jan 3, 2011
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SUNDANCE UNVEILS COMPETITION LINEUP
Daily Variety
Dec 1, 2010
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SUNDANCE 2011: U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
indieWIRE
Dec 1, 2010
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PIC FUNDS AWARDED
Daily Variety
Nov 10, 2010
by Pamela McClintock
For the first time, the annual Women in Film Foundation’s Finishing Fund included prizes this year for narrative features along with feature docus and shorts…
Docu feature winners were Lisa Gossel’s “My So-Called Enemy,” Yoav Potash’s “Crime After Crime,” and Nisha Ligon’s “Twiga Stars: Tanzania’s Soccer Sisters.”
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Los Angeles Times
Aug 19, 2009
STEVE LOPEZ POINTS WEST
Tripping over public policies
I’ve got the case of a terminally ill woman who has been locked up 27 years for the murder of her violently abusive boyfriend, even though the key witness against her was a liar, the district attorney’s office agreed four years ago that it was time to let her go and a state parole board has recommended her release.
…Then there’s the matter of a key witness against Peagler who lied about the case, according to the district attorney’s own records, and a tentative agreement by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley in 2005 to offer a deal for voluntary manslaughter, “which more accurately describes the defendant’s criminal conduct.”
Cooley’s minions later said he didn’t know all the details or he wouldn’t have spoken up.
All I can figure is that Cooley was so embarrassed by that admission that he just can’t let it go…
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Los Angeles Times
August 17, 2009
Compassionate release sought for dying inmate
Deborah Peagler lured an abusive boyfriend to his death in 1982.
By Jack Leonard
Advocates for battered women are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to release a terminally ill prison inmate who is serving a life sentence for her role in the 1982 murder of her abusive boyfriend at a secluded park near Lawndale.
A state parole board decided last month that Deborah Peagler should be released after spending more than 25 years in prison for luring the victim to Alondra Park, where two men beat and strangled him with an electrical cord. The governor has until Aug. 21 to decide whether to reverse the parole board’s decision.
Peagler’s lawyers argue that she was the victim of prolonged and extreme violence at the hands of her longtime boyfriend, Oliver Wilson, 23, a pimp and drug dealer. They said Wilson forced her into prostitution, beat her with a bullwhip and, a few days before he was killed, took her to a motel and repeatedly raped her. Peagler also has accused prosecutors of using false testimony against her during a key court hearing before she pleaded guilty to murder…
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San Francisco Daily Journal
May 26, 2009
Will Justice for Peagler Come in Time?
By Martin Berg
Now is the time for Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley to give it up and stop opposing the release of Deborah Peagler, who’s already served more than 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing her pimp…
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The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Apr 16, 2009
Two years later, there is still no justice for Deborah Peagler
by Stacey Palevsky, Staff Writer
Nearly two years ago I wrote a story about Berkeley lawyer Joshua Safran, an Orthodox Jew, and his efforts to free a black Christian woman, Deborah Peagler, from a California prison. It took me months to research and countless revisions to arrive at the final draft. I spent many nights not sleeping, worried my words wouldn’t do the story justice.
On Oct. 19, 2007, it was published on the cover of j. with the headline “A legal odyssey: An Orthodox lawyer, a convicted killer and a quest for freedom.”
Peagler was convicted in 1983 for the murder of her husband, Oliver Wilson. He had abused her for years, but that evidence was never presented in court. Battered woman syndrome was not considered admissible evidence in California until 1992. Peagler was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison…
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Los Angeles Times
Mar 13, 2009
CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
Judge rules against killer’s release on bail
By Jack Leonard
A judge ruled Thursday that a woman imprisoned for murdering her abusive boyfriend in 1982 should not be released on bail after her attorneys argued in court that she was dying from cancer.
Attorneys for Deborah Peagler asked that she be allowed to spend her final few months with her family. The lawyers said Peagler is expected to die in a matter of months, most likely before a judge can rule on her claim that the abuse by her boyfriend led to his killing…
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Los Angeles Times
Jun 1, 2008
STEVE LOPEZ POINTS WEST
Time to let her, and this case, go
Twenty-five years after a Los Angeles prosecutor admitted that the key witness against her was a liar, and three years after L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley agreed to a deal that would have led to her release, Deborah Peagler is still in prison for the 1982 murder of a pimp who repeatedly beat and sexually assaulted her.
Cooley, who in 2005 had a sudden change of heart about Peagler’s release, is fighting to keep her locked up at the state prison in Chowchilla despite a 2002 law allowing reconsideration of cases involving battered women.
Peagler, in a telephone interview last week, told me Cooley’s flip-flop was devastating…
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The Recorder
May 6, 2008
Pro bono team wins a round
Woman’s murder case taken out of L.A. prosecutors’ hands
By Evan Hill
Recorder Staff Writer
Two Bingham McCutchen lawyers working pro bono to free a woman convicted of killing her abuser scored a victory by convincing a judge to boot its prosecutors off the case.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found that because Walnut Creek-based attorneys Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa leveled serious allegations of impropriety against the L.A. district attorney’s office, it’s more appropriate for the state attorney general’s office to prosecute the case….
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Daily Journal
April 29, 2008
DA Removed From Wrongful-Conviction Case
By Ryan Oliver
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Los Angeles – A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has removed the district attorney’s office from handling the case of an inmate who claims she was wrongly convicted of murder in 1983.
Defense attorneys for Deborah Peagler claim prosecutors at the time failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense, and that in 2005 District Attorney Steve Cooley and high-ranking members of his office reneged on their agreement to attempt to free Peagler…
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Los Angeles Times
Apr 26, 2008
Judge bars D.A. from murder appeal
A woman convicted of killing her abusive boyfriend in 1982 wins a key victory in her battle for freedom.
By Jack Leonard
A Los Angeles judge Friday removed the entire district attorney’s office from a high- profile case in which a woman imprisoned for murdering her abusive boyfriend in 1982 contends that county prosecutors agreed to support her release but then reneged on the deal.
The unusual ruling was welcomed by attorneys for Deborah Peagler, 48, as a key victory in her ongoing battle for freedom, which they said had been blocked by internal squabbling and prosecutorial misconduct within Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley’s office.
Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan said he believed that district attorney’s officials could not fairly cross-examine their own bosses if Cooley and other top prosecutors are called to testify in the case…
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Daily Journal
March 17, 2008
DA Is Recused in Wrongful Conviction Case
By Ryan Oliver
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES – Fearing the spectacle of District Attorney Steve Cooley being cross-examined by one of his own deputies, a judge on Friday tentatively recused Cooley’s office from prosecuting the appeal of an inmate who claims she was wrongly convicted of murder in 1983…
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San Francisco Daily Journal
February 15, 2008
Pro Bono Lawyers Clash With DA
Land Use Specialists Seek to Overturn Murder Conviction
By Ryan Oliver
LOS ANGELES – In the first year of her legal career as a corporate land-use attorney, Nadia Costa had no idea she would soon be hunting down domestic violence witnesses in Compton gang territory.
The Bingham McCutchen attorney needed to prove that her client Deborah Peagler, a former prostitute, had good reason to kill her pimp in the early 1980’s – or, at least, good reason not to prevent someone else from killing him.
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Los Angeles Times
Dec. 7, 2007
Lawsuit says Cooley reneged on promise
D.A. vowed to aid her bid for freedom, says the killer of a pimp.
By John Spano
A former prostitute serving life in prison for murdering her abusive pimp sued Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley on Thursday, contending that he reneged on a promise that would have shaved significant time off her sentence, attorneys said.
Advocates for battered women have criticized Cooley’s handling of Deborah Peagler’s case and others like it, saying he has consistently opposed the use of state law that allows defendants convicted of killing their batterers to win reduced sentences if they can show that the abuse, and its effects, led to the killing.
Cooley’s office initially supported Peagler’s bid for freedom, but later opposed it, the lawsuit says. Several nonprofit law centers and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown say Peagler deserves a new hearing on her claims…
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The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Oct 19, 2007
A legal odyssey
An Orthodox lawyer, a convicted killer and a quest for freedom
By Stacey Palevsky
Joshua Safran promised his client he wouldn’t cut his hair until she was out of prison. He guessed he’d grow his tight brown curls for three months, maybe five, tops.
Eighteen months later, in February of this year, his hair grazed his shoulders, scratched his neck and frizzed on rainy days. The style was so un-lawyer-like that it never failed to spark the question: Why?
It was a visual pledge to his client, he’d explain, that he would not rest until she was released from prison for a murder she says she didn’t commit…
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San Francisco Chronicle
September 10, 2007
Crusade for justice: 2 attorneys fight to free Deborah Peagler
Freeing Deborah Peagler has become a personal crusade
Walnut creek
By Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Walnut Creek land use attorneys Nadia Costa and Joshua Safran have never had a client in prison, never had a client plead guilty, never worked on a domestic abuse case.
But for five years, the two attorneys have been on a relentless crusade to free Deborah Peagler, incarcerated for 24 years in connection with the death of her common-law spouse.
“When we first got this case, it was like we fell off the pumpkin cart,” says Safran, 31. “I can get you zoned to be an airport, but I didn’t have any experience in handling anything involving crimes.”
To them, Peagler’s case is a clear-cut matter of justice.
But it’s also deeply personal…
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The Recorder
June 23, 2006
Pro Bono, Prolonged
By Kellie Schmitt
LOS ANGELES – In 2002, Nadia Costa, then a second-year land use associate at Bingham McCutchen. Drove two hours to the women’s prison at Chowchilla for what she thought would be a simple and quick pro bono project.
Inside, she met Deborah Peagler, a pretty, polite woman in heavy denim pants who leaned over a crowded cafeteria table and told her story…
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Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2006
Dispute in D.A.’s Office Blocks Inmate’s Release
Cooley said a battered woman should go free after 23 years in prison. Her lawyers have filed a claim over revocation of the agreement
By Peter Y. Hong, Times Staff Writer
Deborah Peagler thought she would be home for Christmas.
Eight months ago, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Peagler should be freed from the life prison term she has been serving for 23 years for helping to kill her live-in boyfriend in an Inglewood park.
Cooley said then that he believed Peagler, 46, had been a battered woman. That was not considered in 1983 when she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to avoid a death sentence.
In “the interests of justice,” Curt Livesay, then Cooley’s second in command, wrote Peagler’s lawyers in July, Cooley would offer a voluntary manslaughter charge and support her release from prison…
