Blind Plea

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?

40 episodes transcribed
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Listen Now: When We Win

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Today, we are dropping in your feed to introduce you to When We Win, a new podcast from Lemonada Media that asks, is the impossible possible? What wil...

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Bonus: Liz Wrote a Book!

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Today we’re flipping the table and interviewing our host Liz Flock. Gloria Rivieria (host of The Defenders) gets an update about Deven and chats with...

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Listen Now: Believe Her

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

  We’re dropping in your feed today to bring you another true crime podcast from Lemonada Media. Believe Her is a riveting chronicle that grapples wit...

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Life On The Outside

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

Episode 11: Getting out of prison isn’t easy. In the two months since her release, Deven’s been busy: getting IDs, applying for jobs and taking care o...

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Stuck in the System

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Episode 10: After five long years behind bars, the day has finally come for Deven to leave prison. But hours before she’s set to go home, a breakdown...

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An End In Sight

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Episode 9: In October 2022, Deven was given an eight-hour notice that she would be leaving Tutwiler. She was transferred to a temporary facility to pr...

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The Parole Hearing

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

Episode 8: After she was convicted, Deven was sent to Julia Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka, Alabama — one of the most infamous lockups in the county. Ala...

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The Blind Plea

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Episode 7: With her Stand Your Ground claim denied, Deven was stuck in Shelby County Jail awaiting trial. She was up against near impossible odds. Fro...

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Deven’s Defense

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Episode 6: Deven was afraid for her life the night she shot John, but the court denied her ability to use Alabama’s Stand Your Ground Law in her defen...

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The Other Woman

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Episode 5: Deven wasn’t the only woman John was dating. He had another girlfriend, too: Alexis. Alexis’ version of events became critically important...

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John, Barry, J

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

Episode four: In Calera, John was known as J the Phone Guy. But it was just the latest in a web of personas. After years of run-ins with the law, John...

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Deven is Missing

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Episode three: When Deven graduated from high school in Baltimore, she was one of the top students in her class. She got a scholarship to attend Marym...

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BONUS: Deven’s Arrest

Episode Date: May 20, 2023

When Deven arrived at the police station for an interrogation, she’d already endured a night of unimaginable abuse, pain and sleep deprivation. Still,...

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Someone is Lying

Episode Date: 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...

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Haunted Land

Episode Date: 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...