Law&Crime launches podcast on Jennifer & James Crumbley trial
May 22, 2024
Legal and true crime network Law&Crime has announced the next installment of its trial-focused podcast slate, Sins of the Child, available exclusively on Wondery+. The new series, hosted by Paula Barros of Cold Case Files, details the landmark trial of Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of teenage school shooter Ethan Crumbley, tapping into the heated national controversy around parental culpability following a scourge of campus shootings in contemporary America.
In one of the most contentious trials to gain widespread media attention so far in 2024, the Crumbley’s became the first US parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child, who killed four fellow students at Oxford High School in his hometown in Michigan in November 2021. Both parents were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for their role in purchasing their son his weapon, and each was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
The seven episode podcast series sets out to provide listeners with the most detailed legal background and analysis of the unprecedented court case to date, while also delving into hot-button questions regarding personal responsibility in an age when parenting is already under fire more so than ever before. Through key interviews with investigators, prosecutors and others close to the case, the cultural and political fury directed towards the Crumbleys is unpacked anew and their parenting nightmare is retold as one that anyone with teen children might just encounter next.
Sins of the Child is the second of five Law&Crime produced podcast series expected to be released on Wondery+ in the coming months. The first – The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke covering the mom-fluencer child-abuse scandal – hit the #1 spot in true crime podcasts charts on Apple Podcasts.