Dan Slepian, award-winning journalist at NBC News and veteran producer of Dateline, will discuss his decades-long work as an investigative reporter researching and advocating for individuals who were wrongfully convicted. Mr. Slepian will be joined by Eric Glisson, who was exonerated in 2012 after serving nearly 18 years in New York's Sing Sing prison for a murder he did not commit.
Slepian's debut book, “The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice” was published in September, 2024.
Eric Glisson, one of the "six innocent men" featured in Slepian's book, has been featured on NBC's Dateline. Slepian met and interviewed Glisson in Sing Sing prison, soon before his release.
Glisson's case involved a false accusation that wrongly identified him as the shooter of a cab driver in New York. After years of investigating his own case, Glisson obtained phone records through a FOIA request that showed a connection to a violent gang. A federal investigator who had helped lock up members of that gang eventually confirmed that two other men had confessed to killing the cab driver.
Slepian was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his eight-episode podcast, “Letters From Sing Sing,” which documents his 20-year journey investigating the wrongful conviction of Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez. The podcast hit #1 on Apple’s top charts the day of its release.
Slepian conceived, developed and produced “Justice For All”, an NBC News/MSNBC series about the criminal justice system. The week-long event included the first town hall from a maximum security prison as well as Dateline’s Emmy nominated “Life Inside,” an impactful and emotional hour about mass incarceration in which Slepian and anchor Lester Holt spent two nights inside Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison.
Slepian is known for his in-depth reporting about the criminal legal system and specifically, wrongful convictions. His documentaries on the topic have earned him more than a dozen Emmy nominations.
As a volunteer, Slepian works with incarcerated men at Sing Sing prison where he helped create "Voices From Within," a video featuring deeply personal testimonials intended to help reduce gun violence. He introduced the video during a TEDx talk at Sing Sing.
Before joining NBC News, Slepian began his career with the Phil Donahue talk show.