January 13, 2001

Weekly Edition
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An index of this week's stories:

Execution (14.4 | 28.8) - NPR's Madeline Brand reports that the rate of executions this month in Oklahoma is attracting national protest on the part of groups such as Amnesty International. Oklahoma's number of executions is second only to Texas, and is expected to double within the next year. Jesse Jackson planned to lead a march to protest the pending execution of a mentally-disabled Black woman. - 4:46

The Exonerated (14.4 | 28.8) - NPR's Margot Adler reports on a new play, The Exonerated, which is based on interviews with eleven people on Death Row who barely excaped being executed. The first performance featured ten actors who donated their time to the production, including Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, long-time death penalty opponents. - 8:53

Inmate (14.4 | 28.8) - NPR's Renee Montagne talks with death row inmate at San Quentin Prison, Stanley Williams. Williams was convicted of killing four people in the late 1970's, while he was a leader of the Crips, a gang he helped found. Now he's a nominee for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. - 9:00

Rappers Delight (14.4 | 28.8) - In our latest installment of the NPR 100, our list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century, Elizabeth Blair looks at the first "hip hop" song to hit the mainstream, Rappers Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. - 8:01

Thievery Corp. (14.4 | 28.8) - Many music fans perceive electronica as cold and impersonal. Washington, DC's Thievery Corporation is out to change all that. Producers Eric Hilton and Rob Garza borrow from such disparate styles as jazz, reggae, exotica and bossa nova; and merge them with dance-club beats. Liane joins the men behind Thievery Corporation at the swanky Eighteenth Street Lounge. {NOTE: The new Thievery Corporation CD is titled The Mirror Conspiracy ESL Music catalog # 33} - 16:00

Some stories do not link to audio files because of Internet rights issues.

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