5 episodes
Number 1500 Atticus
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- True Crime
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4.8 • 91 Ratings
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25-year-old Donovan Parks was shopping for cat food after church at a small-town Wal-Mart when he crossed paths with a man shopping for someone to kill. Sixteen minutes later, Donovan was dead. His own father found him bleeding in the middle of the street. In four days, Marion Wilson is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the murder, after another man has already been executed for the crime. If the execution goes through, it will be the 1500th since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States. Journalist Jeremy Campbell was asked to serve as a media witness for the execution. Follow his journey as he and a team of investigators learn all they can about the crime, the man being executed, the victim and the controversy surrounding the death penalty in America.
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Episode 1: The Victim and the Crime
In four days Marion Wilson Jr. is scheduled to become the 1500th person to die by execution in America. His attorneys are fighting it. The victim's family is ready for justice. Before watching him die, a journalist serving as media witness goes back to the night of the crime.
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Episode 2: The Murderer
Things like this just don't happen in this small town where Wal-Mart is one of the biggest attractions. Donovan Wilson was shopping for cat food. While two others were shopping for someone to kill. With three days left before Marion Wilson’s execution, we learn someone else may have pulled the trigger.
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Episode 3: The Debate
In one day, Marion Wilson Jr. is scheduled to be the 1500th person executed in the United States. While the parole board considers putting it on hold, the controversy over the death penalty stirs emotion from those on both sides of the debate. Could Wilson be spared after all?
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Episode 4: The Execution Day
On the day of the execution, emotions are strong outside Georgia's Death Row. Members of a rare club share vastly different experiences with the death penalty and violent crime.
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Episode 5: About to be Free
With a prison on lockdown, the U.S. Supreme Court considers a motion to stop the execution. Journalist Jeremy Campbell offers a firsthand account from inside the execution chamber. As the victim's family sits in the front row, waiting for justice, Marion Wilson Jr.'s daughter has something to say outside the prison.
Customer Reviews
Wow!!!
Good listen!!! Great reporting!
Death penalty
We need to keep in mind that while seeing someone executed isn’t pleasant what he did was wrong and maybe we need to see it from the victims family sadness and loss. As far as inmate 1500 his death was far less painful than his victims, laying in a street shot in the back of the head with a sawed off shot gun bleeding. He was a thug a criminal that had no value of that young mans life and that probably would’ve never changed and with that said maybe if he had been taught the value of life maybe he’d thought twice about taking another’s away.
Excellent with one occasional flaw
The only issue with this otherwise outstanding, well-researched, well-edited exploration of the death penalty in America as filtered through a decades-old case, is the host occasionally making it about his own feelings and emotions.
I’m not opposed to this narrative tactic, but in true crime podcasts it must be handled tactfully and professionally — the reporter calling his mom to tell her he’s going to watch a man die, for example, was totally unnecessary. I did appreciate the reporter being honest about this being his first time witnessing someone be executed, and his observations are generally astute. But sometimes he strays into angsty territory that does the show no good.