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?
31 episodes transcribedEpisode 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Episode 5: Deven wasn’t the only woman John was dating. He had another girlfriend, too: Alexis. Alexis’ version of events became critically important...
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...
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...
When Deven arrived at the police station for an interrogation, she’d already endured a night of unimaginable abuse, pain and sleep deprivation. Still,...
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...
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...
