Jury Duty

Over the course of the six weeks of The Jinx 2 series we are re-releasing 27 of our favorite episodes about the Durst trial from the Jury Duty feed.From May through September of 2021, in 45 regular and bonus episodes, Jury Duty covered the witness testimony in the Durst Trial. You can do a deep dive into that testimony in Season 2 Episodes 4 through 33 of this podcast. Today we begin our four-part presentation of our episodes covering the lawyers’ closing arguments in the trial. This is Season 2 Episode 31: Roaches in Soup: Closing Arguments — Part 1On Wednesday September 8th, Deputy DA Habib Balian commenced the prosecution's highly-anticipated closing arguments. In this episode, host Kary Antholis and co-host Brittany Bookbinder explore Balian's use of emotion, metaphor, and repetition to convince the jury of Robert Durst’s guilt. Kary and Brittany are joined by Charles V. Bagli, who is covering the trial for The New York Times and CrimeStory.com, to discuss what this first day tells us about the prosecution’s closing argument strategy.

From May through September of 2021, in 45 regular and bonus episodes, Jury Duty covered the witness testimony in the Durst Trial. You can do a deep dive into that testimony in Season 2 Episodes 4 through 33 of this podcast.Beginning tomorrow we will present our episodes covering the lawyers closing arguments in the trial. Beyond that, we will offer portions of our coverage of the trial’s verdict and the Durst sentencing, as well as excerpts of our exclusive interviews with two of the Trial’s jurors, and the lead prosecutor, John Lewin.But first, we present the second installment in our two-part review of the most significant and memorable moments that occurred during the trial testimony of this extraordinary trial.Yesterday, in part 1, host Kary Antholis, co-host Brittany Bookbinder, and journalist Charles V Bagli — who covered the Durst story for CrimeStory.com and the New York Times — discussed the moments from the proceedings that were truly incredible but did not quite make Charlie’s top 10 list.Today, we present Season 2 Episode 36: The Durst Trial’s Most Memorable Moments — Part 2 — Charles Bagli's Top Ten. 

During each of the first 3 weeks of The Jinx 2 series we released four of our favorite episodes about the Durst trial from the Jury Duty feed… We’ve had a tremendous response to these first 12 episodes, and so during these last 3 weeks of the series, we have decided to increase our weekly release to 5 of the most memorable episodes from our Durst coverage for a total of 27 episodes.From May through September of 2021, in 45 regular and bonus episodes, Jury Duty covered the witness testimony in the Durst Trial. You can do a deep dive into that testimony in Season 2 Episodes 4 through 33 of this podcast. Later this week we will present our episodes covering the lawyers closing arguments in the trial. Beyond that, we will offer portions of our coverage of the trial’s verdict and the Durst sentencing, as well as excerpts of our exclusive interviews with two of the Trial’s jurors, and the lead prosecutor, John Lewin.But first, over the next two installments we present the episodes where our Jury Duty team reflected on the most significant and memorable moments that occurred during the trial testimony of this extraordinary trial.We begin these reflections with Season 2 Episode 35 The Durst Trial’s Most Memorable Moments — Part 1 — Honorable Mentions, in which host Kary Antholis, co-host Brittany Bookbinder, and journalist Charles V Bagli — who covered the Durst story for CrimeStory.com and the New York Times — discuss the moments from the proceedings that were truly incredible but did not quite make Charlie’s top 10 list. We will present Charlie’s Top Ten moments in our next episode. 

Installment 12 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is Season 2 Episode 4 Susan Berman — The Tragic End.As a preface to our season 2 coverage of the post-pandemic portion of the trial we offer the final part of a three part series on the life of his best friend and alleged victim, Susan Berman. The Tragic End tracks Susan's initially hopeful and ultimately fatal Hollywood experience. We also discuss the first week of testimony in Durst's trial for Berman's murder with Charles V. Bagli, who covered the trial for The New York Times and CrimeStory.com.

Installment 11 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is Season 2 Episode 2 Susan Berman — A Big Personality.As a preface to our season 2 coverage of the post-pandemic portion of the trial we offer part two of a three part series on the life of his best friend and alleged victim, Susan Berman. A Big Personality focuses on Susan establishing her career as a writer, the emotional and psychological troubles she confronted as a young adult and the forging of her relationship with Robert Durst.The episode also includes a report on developments in the case just as the trial is about to re-commence after a 14 month pandemic hiatus.

Installment 10 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is Season 2 Episode 1, Susan Berman — Easy Street.As a preface to our season 2 coverage of the post-pandemic portion of the trial we offer part one of a three part series on the life of his best friend and alleged victim, Susan Berman. Easy Street focuses on Susan's early life, growing up in Las Vegas as the daughter of a well known organized crime figure.

Installment 9 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is The Defense Opening and the Pandemic Hiatus where we offer highlights of Season 1 Episodes 9 through 12.Dick Deguerin and David Chesnoff split the responsibilities of delivering the defense opening, with Deguerin asserting that Durst didn’t kill Susan Berman and he doesn’t know who did and with Chesnoff reminding the jurors that the defendant is only on trial for Berman’s murder.After the opening statements conclude, it becomes clear that the jury will have to choose between two ways of interpreting evidence: Will they be guided by Chesnoff’s mantra that “no evidence is evidence” deciding that the lack of CSI-type forensic evidence leaves them with reasonable doubt of Durst’s guilt, or will they follow Lewin’s OK Boomer Method deciding that the mess of circumstantial evidence surrounding Durst’s actions and statements and the statements of others leaves only one reasonable explanation: that Robert Durst killed Susan Berman. And then, after two days of testimony the LA courts are shut down due to COVID-19 and the trial is suspended until next Spring. The episode concludes with a taste of the testimony that lies ahead in Season Two.

Installment 8 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is Season 1 Episode 8: After the Jinx.In March of 2015, after the debut of a pivotal episode of The Jinx, Robert Durst was arrested in New Orleans on gun charges. Deputy DA John Lewin tells the jury that this is where he first met Durst, traveling to New Orleans to interrogate him. Lewin concludes his opening statement by presenting testimony of Durst's and Susan Berman's good friend Nick Chavin. According to Chavin, when he asked Durst about Susan Berman, Durst gave Chavin a disturbing reply.

Installment 7 of The Trial of Robert Durst: Greatest Hits is Season 1 Episode 7: The Jinx.After his acquittal on charges of murdering Morris Black and after serving prison time for dismembering Black's body and jumping bail, Robert Durst decides to record a conversation with the filmmakers of a movie that suggests he committed three murders. That conversation led to the documentary series The Jinx, and - ultimately - to Durst's now-famous bathroom utterances "There it is. You're caught." and "Killed them all, of course."