Deep Dive with Karen McKinney and Joseph Herrera on Hard Conversations

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Show

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When prosecutor Karen McKinney argued for a life sentence against a 19-year-old gang member named Joseph, she never imagined they would one day share laughs over tacos. Twenty years later, their unexpected friendship challenges everything Karen believed about human capacity for change. After witnessing Joseph's profound transformation at his parole hearing, she took the unprecedented step of reaching out to the man she had once condemned. Their story transcends the boundaries of the justice system, proving that authentic connection can flourish in the most unlikely places – and that it's never too late to see someone, or yourself, in a new light. WARNING: This episode continues detailed descriptions of violence. This episode was made possible by a grant from Templeton Religion Trust. To learn more, go to templetonreligiontrust.org. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	As a small business owner, my favourite thing about posting a job on LinkedIn is that when I hit send, I clock out and LinkedIn clocks in.
0:07.0	LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free. Get qualified candidates and manage them all in one place.
0:12.9	Plus, LinkedIn extends the reach of your job posts by allowing you to share it with your network.
0:17.7	And hiring managers that add a hiring frame to their LinkedIn profiles receive
0:22.0	two times more qualified applicants. Go to LinkedIn.com slash agree to post your job for free.
0:28.1	Terms and conditions apply.
0:34.5	Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders. I'm Kelly Corrigan, and today I'm wondering about the possibility of profound change, not just in ourselves, but in how we see each other.
0:44.6	Can someone who has committed serious violent crimes actually transform?
0:49.8	Can a prosecutor who's seen the worst of humanity learn to see the possibility of redemption?
0:55.6	This is the fifth and final episode of our hard conversation series, where we look at the ways people have come back together after a rupture.
1:04.6	Today we'll hear an extraordinary story of two people who started as sworn enemies, a prosecutor, and the gang member she sent to prison
1:11.2	for attempted murder, their unlikely friendship challenges everything we think we know about
1:17.0	judgment and our capacity to grow. Today, my conversation partners are Karen McKinney, a former
1:23.7	prosecutor, and Joseph Herrera, a man she once sent to prison for attempted murder.
1:29.0	Their story isn't about wrongful conviction or an overzealous prosecutor.
1:33.2	It's about transformation, about how two people on opposite sides of the justice system
1:38.7	found their way to a profound friendship and about what happens when we're willing to drop our narratives
1:45.0	about who someone is and see them fully.
1:48.9	Here's my conversation with Karen McKinney and Joe Herrera.
1:56.8	Karen, how did you come to know, Joe?
1:59.5	I was a career prosecutor and had advanced into what was known as a prestigious unit in my office,
2:07.8	which was the gang unit, which had more serious prosecutions.
	...

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