STATEWIDE – Due Process, NJN’s award-winning series on law and justice issues, looks at the war on drugs, Centurion Ministries, pit bulls and cold-case files. Hosted by Raymond Brown with Sandra King as senior producer and Jeff Friedman as executive producer/director, Due Process airs Sundays at 9:30 am and 6:30 pm; and Tuesdays at 11:30 pm.

Sunday, November 7 at 9:30 am and 6:30 pm; Tuesday, November 9 at 11:30 pm
THE WAR ON DRUGS: A LOSING BATTLE?
We’ve been fighting the war on drugs for three decades, but are we any closer to winning after 30 years? On this edition of Due Process, Sandy King takes to the streets of Newark with Mike Pasterchick, the Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New Jersey. Pasterchick shows us what he claims is the city’s open-air heroin market and asserts that federal drug fighters are making strides in the war against drugs. In the studio segment with Raymond Brown, a drug rehab expert insists that drug policy should tilt in the direction of treatment; while a lawyer who heads a national project aimed at reforming drug laws charges the war on drugs should be abandoned as a 30-year abysmal failure.

Guests include Mike Pasterchick; Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation; and David Kerr, president of Integrity House.

Sunday, November 14 at 9:30 am and 6:30 pm; Tuesday, November 16 at 11:30 pm
CENTURION MINISTRIES
No system is perfect. But is the number of innocent people in prison more than we can imagine? According to Kate Germond of Centurion Ministries, “There are more people wrongfully convicted than people even dare to believe.” This belief led Jim McCloskey to establish Centurion Ministries. His life changed when he traded a lucrative career in international business for a stint in the seminary. As a student chaplain in a Trenton cell block, he met a man convicted of murder who convinced him he was innocent. Knowing there were thousands like him, McCloskey found his calling.

Through Centurion Ministries, he has helped to release twenty-five wrongfully convicted and imprisoned men and women. Clarence Moore is one of those prisoners fortunate enough to be aided by Centurion Ministries. Sentenced to twenty-five years to life for rape, he has already served fifteen years. Centurion Ministries mounted an appeal to overturn his conviction. But are Clarence and others like him a minority or victims of a far-reaching systemic problem within our judicial system? In the studio, Raymond Brown is joined by criminal defense lawyer Paul Casteleiro and former federal prosecutor and Superior Court Judge Marianne Espinosa Murphy.

Sunday, November 21 at 9:30 am and 6:30 pm; Tuesday, November 23 at 11:30 pm
PIT BULLS
Pit Bulls: are they really more dangerous then other dogs? They've already been banned in parts of Europe. Might New Jersey be next? Animal risks or rights? Attorney Alan Darnell thinks they should be banned, but police officer Chris Jacksic, a pit bull breeder and handler, says the “bad” ones are the innocent victims of improper training.

Sunday, November 28 at 9:30 am and 6:30 pm; Tuesday, November 30 at 11:30 pm
COLD CASE FILES: HEATING UP IN NEW JERSEY
One of the most watched shows on prime time, commercial TV is CBS’s Cold Case. But with dozens of real, unsolved homicide cases in New Jersey, real “cold case” squads have been forming throughout the state. The hope is that new forensic technology – especially DNA – will lead to the solving of cases that have been abandoned as hopeless. Due Process talks to the Somerset County prosecutor about the four cases his office has now reopened – one of them more than 20 years old. Also featured is a segment on a new DNA-based prosecution in a 36-year-old Monmouth County case – the 1968 beating death of 13-year-old Jane Durrua. Guests include Ajit Tungare, chief forensic scientist for the NJ State Police; Robert Honecker, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor; and criminal defense attorney Dan Smith.

Launched in 1996, Due Process is approaching its tenth season with the same cutting edge coverage that has marked its nine-year tenure. The program is made possible by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation with funding from the IOLTA Fund of the Bar of New Jersey.