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Blind Plea

Blind Plea

By: Lemonada Media
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In 2017, Deven Grey, a young mother, shot and killed her abusive partner in a remote trailer in rural Shelby County, Alabama. She claimed self-defense and filed a Stand Your Ground claim.

Instead of freedom, she was handed a “blind plea” – an option to take an unknown sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. As a Black woman who shot and killed a white man in Alabama, she did the only thing she could: She took the plea. Deven’s sentence became the final link in a chain of deceit, haunted land, generational trauma, false identity, coercive control, and a broken justice system.

Hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Liz Flock, Blind Plea asks: Who do we believe, and why? And in America, who has the right to self defense and a fair trial?

2025 Lemonada Media Inc. True Crime
Episodes
  • Blind Plea (Official Trailer)

    Blind Plea (Official Trailer)
    Apr 27 2023

    Deven Grey, a young, isolated mother in Alabama, reached a point of no return on December 12, 2017. She shot and killed her boyfriend, John Vance. Rather than face a jury, Deven accepted a “blind plea” deal. This is Deven’s story, reclaimed. From Lemonada Media, this is Blind Plea. Coming May 17.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    2 mins
  • Haunted Land

    Haunted Land
    May 17 2023

    Episode one: When John brought his girlfriend Deven to his family property in Calera, Alabama, Deven became the latest in a decades-long line of women to be beaten and broken down on that same land. In December 2017, after a violent evening and years of abuse, Deven shot and killed John. Then, she called 911 to turn herself in.

    Resources:

    • If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at www.thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-7233. You can also search for a local domestic violence shelter at www.domesticshelters.org/.
    • If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at www.rainn.org or call 1-800-656-HOPE
    • Have questions about consent? Take a look at this guide from RAINN at www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent
    • Learn more about criminalized survival https://survivedandpunished.org/

    This series is created with Evoke Media, a woman-founded company devoted to harnessing the power of storytelling to drive social change. To learn more, visit weareevokemedia.com.

    This series is presented by Marguerite Casey Foundation. MCF supports leaders who work to shift the balance of power in their communities toward working people and families, and who have the vision and capacity for building a truly representative economy. Learn more at caseygrants.org or visit on social media @caseygrants.

    Follow host Liz Flock on Twitter @lizflock. For more stories of women and self-defense, check out her book “The Furies” from Harper Books, available for pre-order now. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-furies-elizabeth-flock

    Interested in bonus content and behind the scenes material? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium right now in the Apple Podcasts app by clicking on our podcast logo and the "subscribe” button.

    Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    40 mins
  • Someone is Lying

    Someone is Lying
    May 17 2023

    Episode two: No one disputes that Deven shot and killed John. But beyond that, the stories of what happened that night didn’t align. Someone was lying. The question is who: was it Deven, John or… the other woman John was dating?

    Resources:

    • If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at www.thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-7233. You can also search for a local domestic violence shelter at www.domesticshelters.org/.
    • If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at www.rainn.org or call 1-800-656-HOPE
    • Have questions about consent? Take a look at this guide from RAINN at www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent
    • Learn more about criminalized survival at https://survivedandpunished.org/

    This series is created with Evoke Media, a woman-founded company devoted to harnessing the power of storytelling to drive social change. To learn more, visit weareevokemedia.com.

    This series is presented by Marguerite Casey Foundation. MCF supports leaders who work to shift the balance of power in their communities toward working people and families, and who have the vision and capacity for building a truly representative economy. Learn more at caseygrants.org or visit on social media @caseygrants.

    Follow host Liz Flock on Twitter @lizflock. For more stories of women and self-defense, check out her book “The Furies” from Harper Books, available for pre-order now. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-furies-elizabeth-flock

    Interested in bonus content and behind the scenes material? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium right now in the Apple Podcasts app by clicking on our podcast logo and the "subscribe” button.

    Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    48 mins
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...At least, it deserves to get nominated. These episodes do more than an excellent job reporting on a textbook case of domestic violence as well as the overall emotional impact on the victim/person of Deven Grey, educating listeners on the profound core subject matter of domestic violence, but brings into question even more related and important subject matters. The journalist narrating and reporting on the whole series with her team, Liz Flock, is herself an admitted d.v. survivor, and unlike what many (in actuality, biased) negative reviews erroneously complain about, she and her team maintain doing an objective job throughout. (Spoilers ahead…) I love how over the first few episodes there are moments when a listener can possibly be hooked into prejudging a characteristic, only in the following episode the stigma is revealed. The series at its core takes a holistic view of the cycle of domestic violence, delving into both the abused and the abuser's personal histories and indicating, backed with data, the major reasons behind their respective behaviors. (Although, and maybe I'm incorrect, the series hints at early intervention in general, which is a key element in breaking the generational cycle of abuse, but does not outright mention it?) The series pervasively explains reasons behind the ever-present, and stigmatic, question of, 'Why couldn't she just leave?' There is often a pattern centered around the potential abuser's overwhelming insecurity due to his (in roughly 85% of reported d.v. cases it is a 'his') abusive history stemming from early development. As for victims, often themselves wearing a history of abuse and/or significant emotional or physical neglect, as a result of their overall chemistry the two fall in love. And oftentimes after a woman gets pregnant, this would be the biggest means to solidify their togetherness and keep her at home. One method after another, everything becomes centered around an imbalanced system of power and control – which includes, in between the abusive moments, showing to be kind, tender, and caring. No outside observer can reasonably tell someone who they should or shouldn't fall in love with. Deven, an intelligent person, honor's student, though an admitted "hopeless romantic", at around the age of 20 went blind from living in a blue-acclimated northern cultural climate into a very red, rural southern one, in a trailer owned by John's family lacking even a mailbox. The facts presented throughout the history of this case raises valid questions regarding systemic racism (Deven is black, as among other relevant concerns, Stand Your Ground laws don't typically favor women in domestic abuse situations, hence leading to the blind plea deal which are statistically more common in the South), the cultural history of the rural South, and the bureaucracy of the private prison system and lack of accountability against women inmates, without ever avoiding the critical emotional gravity of each matter throughout. (To many two-star reviewers of this podcast that I've read, and those it would appear too quick to react to 'racial bias' here against Southerners, I don't think you're hearing let alone listening. You've never read To Kill a Mockingbird, nor heard of the case of Emmitt Till, to name a couple of examples. Have you forgotten how a great many lynchings during slavery and Jim Crow resulted from a white person falsely claiming a black man had flirted with, tried to kiss, or raped a white woman? And so, the ghosts of that centuries-old history is totally irrelevant in this case, where a white investigator strictly proceeded on the word of John's white girlfriend-on-the-side, completely denying all of the relevant physical evidence in Devin's case–-her related injuries, the thousands of text messages between her and John throughout their relationship proving his abusive history, as well as for some reason claiming with ease there was no actual abuse inflicted on Devin the night she shot him when there definitely was? Or, the white panel of judges who denied the forensic psychologist's 20-plus page report submitted during Deven's Stand Your Ground defense, reconvening after just five minutes to rule against this defense? The white prosecuting attorney having convinced the white judge during the trial that all of the evidence of John's history of abuse should not be submitted into record? Nor even the time the police, while knocking on John's front door, indicating who they were multiple times seeking to question him over a different matter--the alleged rape of another woman--and when John finally opened the door visibly drunk off his head with a semi-auto strapped over his shoulder, the officers just hung out and waited for an opportunity to take him peacefully? Never once, in each of these instances, does the journalist/narrator flat-out call racism. Based upon the actions of the respective parties involved and all of the relevant surrounding data, as a proper journalist she legitimately raises the question thereof. Reflexively charging 'bias' here does more to reinforce the very stereotype you and reasonably minded others living in and outside of the South wish to diminish.) And, in interviewing activists, the series offers advice on how anybody can better help others get out of current domestic violence situations, as well as with the aftermath. This podcast does a thorough and profound job of educating listeners who may know little to nothing about this increasingly important subject matter.

This Podcast deserves a Pulitzer

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Randomly found this podcast. I was instantly hooked after listening to the trailer. The host’s voice kept me captivated as did the story. Unfortunately, this story demonstrates once again there are many places where women nor children are valued. The lack of training and understanding of why domestic abuse victims don’t leave abusive relationships and why they keep quiet. This is without delving into the race issue of a black young woman with a white abusive boyfriend. I absolutely believe the outcome would have been different if Deven was white and the boyfriend was black. I’m a white lady from MS and there is no getting around unconscious bias without a strong effort to change yourself and push yourself to do better. I can’t wait to hear what this group covers next.

Love love love

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I gobbled this show down and fell in love with both the host and the subject.

Captivating, moving, and inspirational

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