Ep. 12: Michelle Simpson Tuegel & Jennifer Hohman- Wrongful convictions & victim advocacy.

Leading memory experts such as Dr. Elizabeth Loftus suggest that memory is not always as reliable as we think it is, especially amongst children, but jurors are extremely swayed by eyewitness testimony. In fact, it is widely accepted in the field of psychology that 75% of wrongful convictions include faulty eyewitness testimony. When someone is wrongfully convicted, their life is not only stolen from them, but justice is not served for the victim. As an organization who believes strongly in elevating and believing the victim, we were extremely interested to have Michelle Tuegel Simpson, attorney and advocate for the legal rights of victims, and Jennifer Hohman, Crime Stoppers of Houston board member and podcast contributor on The Balanced Voice to discuss the intersection between wrongful convictions and victim advocacy. In this conversation, Rania, Michelle and Jennifer discuss wrongful convictions, eyewitness testimony, victim advocacy and trauma informed care.

Photo credit: shewinslaw.com

More about Michelle Tuegel:

Michelle began her career as a criminal defense attorney in central Texas. She tried many high-profile capital murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, and felony drug cases at a young age. Michelle recently represented the U.S national gymnastics team, and college athletes who were sexually abused by the former Olympic team doctor Michelle has received many awards over the years including being named to The National Trial Lawyer’s Top Trial Lawyers list as well as to the Texas SuperLawyers Rising Star list for 2015-2018. Previously she has been named to SuperLawyers Rising Star lists, “Up and Coming Top 100 Lawyers and “Up and Coming Top 50 Women Lawyers.” Throughout her career, Michelle has spoken on Title IX, criminal defense and civil trial issues around the country and appears frequently in the media as a legal voice on programs such as CNN and USA Today. You can learn more about Michelle here.

Follow Michelle:

Website: shewinslaw.com

Thank you for following along with The Balanced Voice. The views expressed in each episode are those of the podcast guest and do not necessarily represent the views of The Balanced Voice or Crime Stoppers of Houston.

Thank you to our Episode 11 Sponsors, Brigitte and Bashar Kalai, Hallie Vanderhider, and Sippi and Ajay Khurana.