In “Case in Point,” Andrew Cohen examines a single case or character that sheds light on the criminal justice system. An audio version of Case in Point is broadcast with The Takeaway, a public radio show from WNYC, Public Radio International, The New York Times, and WGBH-Boston Public Radio.
The story of Nicholas Glisson’s premature death in an Indiana prison begins with just two pills, two Oxycodone painkillers. Glisson had the pills because he was a survivor of laryngeal cancer, which had required the removal of his larynx and part of his pharynx. He needed a voice prosthesis to speak and a tracheostomy tube to breathe. He wore a neck brace because of cervical spine damage he had suffered from years as a construction worker, leaving him unable to hold his head up by himself. He had the pills because he was in constant pain.
Despite all this Glisson generally took good care of himself, living on his own, helping and being helped by his mother, both of them making do. And then one day in July, 2007, while he was living with his grandmother, he offered to give two pills to someone he thought was a friend. Only this “friend,” who had asked for the pills, evidently was a “confidential informant” working for the police. The friend turned in Glisson and the ailing man, 47 at the time, was arrested for “dealing in a controlled substance.”
[For more of this story, written by Andrew Cohen, go to https://www.themarshallproject...anagement#.HVXXnBbby]
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