{"podcast":{"title":"Swear on the Stand","slug":"swear-on-the-stand-7111404","podcast_index_feed_id":7111404,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/fddb5314/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danielswear","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/42490093/42490093-1732466737482-64af1021e8b8d.jpg","author":"Daniel W. Swear","episode_count":193,"summary":"Court decisions are complex and difficult to digest. This podcast is designed to educating listeners on current legal decisions in a fun and interesting way. Researched by me and produced with the assistance of AI.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-10T22:18:10.447360+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404"},"episode":{"title":"United States v. James: DNA Forensics and Intent to Kill","slug":"united-states-v-james-dna-forensics-and-intent-to-kill","published_at":"2026-06-04T18:36:14+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/united-states-v-james-dna-forensics-and-intent-to-kill","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danielswear/episodes/United-States-v--James-DNA-Forensics-and-Intent-to-Kill-e3kbk0j","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/fddb5314/podcast/play/121015763/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-4%2F65cb4e71-cbe7-713f-d2e7-e7b302872c13.m4a","summary":"This case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addresses the appeal of Allen Houston James , who was convicted of a brutal attempted murder committed in 2000 and solved decades later through forensic genealogy . The court rejected James’s arguments regarding the sufficiency of evidence and jury instructions , ruling that his violent actions clearly demonstrated a specific intent to kill and that any instructional errors were invited by his own legal team. However, the court found that the trial judge committed a plain error by applying modern Sentencing Guidelines instead of those active at the time of the crime. This oversight violated the Ex Post Facto Clause , as it subjected the defendant to a harsher penalty range than originally authorized. Consequently, while the court affirmed the conviction , it vacated the sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing using the correct historical guidelines.","meta_description":"This case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addresses the appeal of Allen Houston James , who was convicted of a brutal attemp…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3392,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/episodes/united-states-v-james-dna-forensics-and-intent-to-kill/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/united-states-v-james-dna-forensics-and-intent-to-kill.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}