ABA to honor Silver Gavel Award winners, including 'Serial' podcast and an HBO doc on Prop 8
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An HBO documentary about the fight against California’s same-sex marriage ban. A hugely popular NPR podcast that re-examined an old murder case. An uncompromising expose of America’s juvenile detention centers. A series of investigatory newspaper articles about domestic violence in South Carolina.
The American Bar Association has named these four works as the winners of this year’s Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts. The ABA announced yesterday that these winners will be honored at a July 21 ceremony in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club. The Silver Gavel Awards, which recognize superior achievements in the arts that help increase the public’s understanding of the law and legal systems, will go to these four winners:
• The Case Against 8, an HBO documentary about the legal battle against California’s Proposition 8, a ballot-referendum that banned same-sex marriage.
• Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, a book by Nell Bernstein which details the harsh realities of state-run juvenile detention centers and argues that they should be closed down.
• Serial: Season One, a popular NPR podcast that re-examined a 2000 murder case in Baltimore.
• “Till Death Do Us Part,” a series of investigative news stories by the Charleston Post and Courier, chronicling South Carolina’s domestic violence epidemic and its extraordinarily high rate of domestic fatalities.
“The winners of 2015 Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts are the result of a rigorous and selective review by the American Bar Association,” said Cory Amron, chair of the 18-member ABA Standing Committee on Gavel Awards, in a press release. “We congratulate all of the awardees for their outstanding efforts to foster the American public’s understanding of law and legal institutions.”
The ceremony will include a keynote address from former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who served as co-lead counsel for Hollingsworth v. Perry, the court case that The Case Against 8 focuses on. ABA President William C. Hubbard will present the awards to the winners, as well as to four honorable mentions. The four honorable mentions are:
• Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution, by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz;
• “Segregation Now: Investigating America’s Racial Divide,” by ProPublica;
• Stop, by Stop Productions;
• and 15 to Life: Kenneth’s Story, by American Documentary/POV and HitPlay Productions.
