Lonnie Soury led the public campaign to free Marty Tankleff, whose wrongful conviction was overturned after 17 years in prison for the murder of his parents. Coverage included the front page of the New York Times and global exposure via a series of one-hour specials by CBS News 48 Hours, A & E American Justice, and other major media. In an unprecedented effort, Soury convinced dozens of former federal and state judges, U.S. Attorneys and New York State prosecutors to file an amicus brief in support of the motion to overturn Tankleff’s conviction.
An expert on media and the law, Soury has worked on many high profile legal cases, advising General Motors on race and sexual discrimination charges, Ticketmaster in federal antitrust matters, and the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien in the largest profit participation case in Hollywood history.
Soury is currently working with Damien Echols, who is on death row in Arkansas in the West Memphis 3 case. Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted based upon a coerced, false confession in 1994. Soury arranged for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Convictions to file an amicus brief in the case with the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Soury has written on wrongful conviction issues and testified before the New York State Assembly Codes Committee, as well as two joint NYS Senate/Assembly public hearings on wrongful convictions. He is a member of the Advisory Group of the New York State Task Force on Wrongful Convictions.
Marlene Dann is an experienced media strategist. She is an award-winning television executive with extensive experience in news and entertainment programming. She was executive vice president, head of daytime programming at Court TV, and managed all content, production, talent management, and branding. She created talk shows with such high profile hosts as Nancy Grace, Star Jones, and Catherine Crier. Dann hired and developed distinguished anchors and correspondents, many of whom are now among television’s most sought after legal analysts. Under her watch, Court TV became the leading destination for legal news. Trial coverage on high profile cases regularly attracted large audiences and garnered some of the highest ratings in the network’s daytime history.
She oversaw the production of breaking news hours as well as a weekly magazine show about Hollywood and the law. Dann was one of the company’s key executives for over a decade. She won various awards for her work at Court TV, including being voted one of the top fifty women in cable television.
Dann created and launched prime time talk programs for CNBC, including the critically acclaimed Charles Grodin, and developed and produced a series whose many hosts included Tim Russert, Mary Matalin, Al Roker, and Phil Donahue. She produced documentaries on such issues as immigration and domestic violence, and was a reporter for Fortune Magazine.
Dann earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the New School for Social Research. She successfully completed the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. Dann is on the board of directors for the Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice.
Eric Friedman led the advocacy campaign to free Marty Tankleff, garnering support on five continents. He created the website martytanklef.org, wrote the Marty Tankleff Blog and moderated the Marty Tankleff Online Forum.
Friedman has been a reporter and columnist for the Mainichi Newspapers of Japan, and an account director at several advertising and public relations agencies, including Dentsu, the world’s largest.