I love that podcasting is bringing us back to the days of radio plays, in a way. Allison Williams has a role in one that she’s also exec-producing, called Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands. Here’s the description, and it includes a cameo by your favorite duellers:
Twenty-two-year-old Elma Sands is found murdered in a Manhattan well on January 2, 1800. Her lover, wealthy and well-connected Levi Weeks, is accused of the barbaric offense. Weeks brings in the nation’s best legal defense team – none other than Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr – to clear his name while a pandemic-stricken New York City buzzes with scandal. This six-episode true story unfolds over the unbelievable two-day trial that laid the sexist roots of today’s justice system. Through flashbacks and testimony recreated in modernized language and narrated by Allison Flom, Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands investigates history’s chronic erasure of women and highlights the toils of Catherine Ring, a 27-year-old Quaker woman who took on the nation’s best legal team to preserve her cousin Elma’s name.
In the song “Non-Stop” from Hamilton, he says, “Gentlemen of the jury, I’m curious, bear with me // Are you aware that we’re making history? // This is the first murder trial of our brand-new nation // The liberty behind deliberation.” That’s this trial. Levi Weeks got off with hardly any deliberation, and I hope A DOT HAM didn’t put a killer back on the streets.
