Cup Of Justice

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ welcome back attorney Mandy Powers Norrell for an episode that opens in 1925 — when women were jailed for wearing pants, by an officer named Police Chief Matney (no relation... probably) — and lands squarely on this week's ballot. 

The trio talk straight-ticket voting and how it ends good lawmakers' careers, why campaigns aim at your reptile brain the closer Election Day gets, and what voting looks like in states that actually want you to do it. Then MPN takes us inside her work prosecuting domestic violence: why most victims don't want thei...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and Atlanta attorney Noah Pines break down the hearing that reset the Murdaugh retrial. 

First: why motions to compel barely exist in criminal court — the state is already compelled, constitutionally and statutorily — and why this pile of them looks like Dick asking Creighton to build his trial notebook for him. 

Then the demolition of the Cowboys theory in one sentence: if any of it were true, Alex already knows it — and he testified to none of it. Noah weighs in on the man Dick named in...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ are joined by US Senate Candidate Dr. Annie Andrews, the pediatrician running in the wildest U.S. Senate race in South Carolina history. 

Annie takes us inside the whirlwind — a sitting senator’s untimely passing, a sister appointed to his seat, one 60-minute debate — and makes her closing argument on the issues the other side won’t touch: gas and grocery prices, rural hospitals, data centers steamrolling communities, and passing gun laws so fewer kids end up with bullet wounds. 

Learn more about ⁠why Dr. Annie...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ are joined by attorney Mandy Powers Norrell as the Greg Alexander story gets stranger. Joe McCulloch tells Court TV he's never met the client he's representing before the state grand jury. 

Team Murdaugh's motion outs the alleged tipster — a municipal judge with her own Murdaugh family ties, per Swamp King — and may have named the wrong law enforcement witness entirely. 

MPN breaks down the defense's real playbook: pick, pick, pick until you find a Colucci-sized discovery violation, with the same SLED agent in the middle of...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ are again joined by Atlanta attorney Noah Pines for a rare glimmer of accountability in South Carolina: Judge Carmen Mullen is finally headed to a public disciplinary hearing — not over the Satterfield settlement, but over the night she was recorded trying to get a deputy to arrest a man for the crime of being weird in his own home. 

Mandy, Liz, and Noah break down the dash-cam audio, how the ODC process works, and why Georgia's "Grim Reaper" cleans up its bench while South Carolina's judges cling to power. 

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠  are joined by Beth Braden to break down another wild Friday of filings. 

First: Greg Parker's team fires off a 38-page response in the Beach case that mentions Mandy 27 times — complete with bitchy footnotes, italicized accusations of "targeted advocacy," and [sic]s for the crime of typing "yall" — proving once again that in South Carolina, the system punishes the people who call it out. 

Then, disturbing developments in the Mica Francis Miller story: an anonymous Facebook page pushing JP's "proof," Mica's mother appealing the pro...

Cups up to Katie Phang! The former prosecutor, trial attorney, and MSNBC anchor joins investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ for a conversation about what happens when you refuse to stay quiet. 

Katie opens up about the day her show was canceled, why she walked away from her network contract to build independent media on her own terms — and the landmark lawsuit she filed against the DOJ for illegally redacting and withholding the Epstein files. 

Plus: her mantra "truthful, but not neutral," what trauma-informed journalism means to the survivor commu...

Barry Cooper was once among the top drug agents in Texas — the youngest on his task force, with more arrests than the 30 agents beside him. Then one raid changed everything, and he flipped, becoming the man behind “Never Get Busted” and the cop-busting stings that made him a target of the very system he once served. 

Joining investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ from his self-imposed exile in Vietnam, Barry pulls back the curtain on why cops really become cops, the “legal thievery” of civil asset forfeiture, why no-knock raids are unnecessary theater, and his radical bluep...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ welcome Nory Boulton — the Texas mom, public education advocate, and "accidental influencer" behind @CivicSage and who built over 350k+ followers from scratch — whose viral videos calling out billionaire Greg Parker reached Mandy at one of the loneliest moments of her legal battle.... all that and so much more.

Nory shares how she went from PTA president to political powerhouse (fun fact: the video that got her pushed out of the PTA now has 4 million views), why she trusts her gut over a content calendar, and how she connects the d...

What happens when a high school sociology teacher hands his students a decades-old cold case instead of a textbook? 

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with Alex Campbell — the Elizabethton, Tennessee high school teacher behind the Prime Video docuseries Murder 101 — whose classes have spent eight years working the Redhead Murders, a string of killings of women found along Southern highways in the 1980s and written off for decades, along with other true crime cases.

Campbell tells the story of the case that started it all, we get into the FO...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with bad-ass attorney Noah Pines for some much-needed grounding. Because things have been rough in these South Carolina legal streets lately, y’all!!!

Noah — who is a longtime friend of LUNASHARK®— is a criminal defense attorney and partner at Ross and Pines LLC in Atlanta. He is perhaps best known for his work on the Joey Watkins case with The Georgia Innocence Project and as an on-air legal analyst for CourtTV. 

On today’s episode of Cup of Justice, Mandy and Liz talk to Noah...

Mandy and Liz sit down with attorney Bill Maurer of the Institute for Justice to talk about what happens when public officials forget that their job is to abide by the constitution. Is there anything people can do to reclaim their rights (and the rights of everyone else)? And is the fight worth it?

Yes and Yes. 

Still reeling from the uprecedented $176,500 sanction for contempt of court that Judge R. Keith Kelly imposed on investigative journalist ⁠⁠Mandy Matney last month, ⁠⁠Mandy and journalist ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ are on a hunt for perspective...

In 1994, 17-year-old Lamonte McIntyre was arrested hours after a double homicide in Kansas City, Kansas — a crime he had nothing to do with. There was no physical evidence and no real investigation. What there was: a detective with a grudge against Lamonte's mother, a prosecutor who apparently knew her witnesses were lying, and a judge allegedly "involved" with that prosecutor. Undoing all those wrongs took 23 years.

This week, Investigative Journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with Miracle of Innocence co-founder Lamonte McIntyre to talk about being swallowed by a system built to protect itself —...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and producer of journalism David Moses are recording near Washington, D.C. for a special episode on an explosive FOIA returned from Spartanburg PD.

First, David opens with gratitude for the listeners who requested a GoFundMe and refused to let Mandy stand alone. Then we’re examining the very relevant Spartanburg Police Report that Deborah Barbier filed claiming that a man stood up in the AC Hotel’s lobby area, photographed her, “kept screaming her name” — and that “Mandy Matney” was somehow involved. 

The report on the June 22, 2026 incident was released after M...

After five amazing years in the fray together and 188 episodes, Eric Bland is stepping back from his role as Cup of Justice co-host — but don't call it goodbye. 

In this heartfelt and candid farewell, Eric explains his decision to refocus on his law practice, his public speaking career, and — most critically — his role as a legal advocate for Mandy as she navigates ongoing harassment and an outrageous sanction that denied her due process at every turn. 

Together, investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland unpack the broken system that...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland discuss the extraordinary $171,500 in attorneys' fees and costs assessed against Mandy for contempt of court. 

Judge R. Keith Kelly has ordered journalist Mandy Matney to pay $171,500 in attorney's fees and a $5,000 fine — for missing a deposition she sat for just days later. 

Ahem… Where Is GREGG ROMAN!?!?!?

On a raw, unfiltered episode, the team breaks down a ruling that Eric — in 38 years of practicing law — says he has never seen anything close to. 

What do...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland break down where the four-month contempt saga stands now that proposed orders are submitted and the decision rests with the judge. 

They unpack the bright spots: the deposition happened, it didn't delay the case, and how Greg Parker's team somehow claimed they needed two days for a deposition that was mostly Jim Bannister asking Mandy about things Liz allegedly said… And then they barely used any of Mandy and Liz deposition testimony in their own summary judgment motions to dismiss the case. 

The...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland analyze everything that went down when Mandy (and Eric) took the stand last week during the absurd contempt proceedings. 

Why did Parker's team show up with four partner-level attorneys, two binders, and zero affidavit? And why was Debbie Barbier demanding Luna Shark's private financials in open court — before any finding of contempt? 

Then... the Murdaugh retrial gets a no-nonsense new judge. Judge Debra McCaslin sets an April 5 trial date, shuts down the laptop request, and puts Dick Harpootlian on notice — continuances aren't on the menu.

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland unpack a stunning South Carolina primary: Jermaine Johnson's grassroots gubernatorial win, Nancy Mace's fifth-place collapse, Lindsey Graham's surprising vulnerability, and the AG race that exposed how trial lawyers really profit. Is Dick Harpootlian's reign as ‘kingmaker’ finally over?

Then the team turns to the courts: the shocking not-guilty verdict in the Rick Chow shooting, Netflix's rushed new Murdaugh "Insta-doc" recasting the Egg Lady juror as a victim, and what the soon-to-be-released juror files might (or might not) reveal.

Plus, Judge Debbie McCaslin's...

What happens when a woman survives the violence done to her — and the state punishes her for it? 

This week, Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with award-winning investigative journalist Justine van der Leun to talk about her new book, Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival. 

Over seven years, Justine mailed surveys to more than ten thousand incarcerated women and uncovered a pattern she calls “criminalized survival”: women who fought back against abusers, then watched the same system that failed to protect them work overtime to...

We’re starting today with Mandy’s first-ever ODC complaint against a Horry County attorney named Bert von Herrmann who chose to post about her courtroom testimony with a misogynistic, body-shaming Facebook post — then shared a non-apology blaming bots, copying devices, and the "misuse of podcasts."

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland unpack why this isn't just one creep online, but part of a coordinated effort to threaten, litigate and berate women journalists into silence. 

And we’re back to the Murdaugh saga: a New Yorker piece peddli...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ were honored to sit down with Dr. Jermaine Johnson — basketball player turned state representative for parts of Kershaw & Richland Counties, now a candidate for governor of South Carolina. 

But this conversation isn’t really about a campaign or politics. It’s about our justice system, and the uncomfortable truth that South Carolina runs two of them: one for the powerful and well-connected, and one for everybody else.

Jermaine has lived inside both. He talks candidly about being homeless as a teenager, about being a young father trapped...

On Friday, Mandy took the stand in York for a civil contempt hearing that, by any measure, never should have happened — while the co-defendants actually trying to depose Gregg Roman (the nucleus of the Parker conspiracy case) had to beg the judge to even hear their motion. The contrast is staggering.

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland unpack what really went down in that courtroom: Meredith Bannon's surgical lawyering, Becky Lindahl's compelling missing-affidavit argument, the 6 year harassment campaign, a felon’s escalating behavior and the sea of supporters in pink who made the day bearable. ...

Eric Bland just had what he calls the worst day of his career outside of his father's cancer diagnosis — a brutal session before a commission of the South Carolina's Office of Disciplinary Counsel where one of the state's most decorated legal malpractice attorneys was made to feel like "a menace to the bar." 

This week, investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland pull back the curtain on how a federally convicted felon seems to be weaponizing the ODC complaint process to punish the very lawyer who helped take Alex Murdaugh down. 

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and Attorney Eric Bland pull no punches as a brutal week looms. With Mandy's May 15 contempt hearing approaching and Eric facing his own all-day ODC deposition Wednesday, the trio breaks down what they call a coordinated campaign of harassment dressed up as litigation. 

Mandy responds — emotionally and on the record — to a paltry excuse for journalism, including the reputationally damaging and wildly defamatory suggestion she might have information about the leaked Mallory Beach photos. 

Liz lays out the timeline: Gregg Roman, the actual custodian of...

Two years ago — on April 27, 2024 — Mica Francis was found dead in a North Carolina swamp after diverting from her normal routine to purchase a pawnshop firearm.  Her ex-husband JP Miller is charged with federal counts of cyberstalking and lying to investigators which may head to trial this June. 

On this episode, investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ are joined by attorney Mandy Powers Norrell (MPN), a former South Carolina state legislator who helped write the state's 2015 domestic violence statute and now prosecutes those cases out of the Lancaster County Solicitor's Office. 

MPN walks us through why "Mica's Law," t...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and Attorney Eric Bland reunite after Mandy's harrowing "ambush hearing" in Gaffney, SC as a non-party witness in Beach v. Greg Parker civil conspiracy case.

Eric, who sat in the courtroom, describes how Mandy was badgered and belittled, a bailiff-escorted her to the bathroom like a criminal, and, in her words, treated "with less respect than Alex Murdaugh." 

The team unpacks what Mandy calls cumulative punishment — Parker's attorneys accusing Mandy of manufacturing fear, then piecemealing her social media posts to betray the court, and the chilling message this sends to every jo...

We're taking a break from COJ this week journeying through Peru for an upcoming episode of Wherever It Leads... To keep y'all informed and entertained, please enjoy this LUNASHARK® Premium Soundbites Episode. True Sunlight returns this week on the public feed!

Beth Braden's Soundbites episode from March 29 covers two of the most disturbing federal cases to come out of South Carolina in recent memory. Former State Representative RJ May — a Freedom Caucus leader who built a career demonizing progressives in the name of protecting children — pleaded guilty to distributing child sexual abuse material and was sentenced to more...

LUNASHARK® Producer David Moses walks Journalist ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and Attorney Eric Bland through the events leading up to Mandy's attempted deposition in Beach v. Parker — a civil conspiracy lawsuit alleging Greg Parker intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the Beach family to avoid accountability in a wrongful death case ultimately settled for over $15 million in July 2023. If awarded, treble damages in this new case could personally cost Greg Parker another estimated $30 - $65 million dollars. To silence Mandy's coverage, Greg Parker demanded she be jailed for contempt. So stakes are high, but are ethics?

David details the March 27th deposition stando...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and Attorney Eric Bland discuss Mandy’s deposition that wasn’t on Friday. 

Mark Moore screamed. The Wi-Fi cut out. Greg Parker Zoomed in from some oddly decorated office with Debbie Barbier. And Mandy Matney sat 2,000 feet away from Moore at a secure location — armed guard protecting everyone, lemon pound cake on the table — waiting for a deposition that never happened.

This week, Mandy breaks down the Friday standoff in full: why safety wasn’t a preference but a requirement, how a convicted felon appeared...

Attorney Eric Bland tells investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ why he is fired up — and for good reason. Eric discusses twelve ODC complaints from a convicted felon and a looming all-day interview about his conduct from Murdaugh-related complaints filed by Parkers attorneys and Dick Harpootlian… from as early as 2021!  The team also takes a hard look at what the ODC actually is, who it protects, and who it's used against. 

Mandy breaks down why she's fighting her deposition subpoena in the Parker civil conspiracy case tooth and nail, what it means that Liz sat for eight ho...

The SLED investigation into Becky Hill has finally pulled back the curtain — and the name appearing over 90 times in that file belongs to fitsnews founder Will Folks… Liz and Mandy’s former employer. 

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland break down exactly how sealed crime scene photos of Paul Murdaugh's body ended up in the hands of Jen Wood, a disgraceful researcher, who texted the graphic images to an internet acquaintance while apparently giddy about what she was seeing. 

Then there's the mystery of Corey Fleming. Eric Bl...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist and Bone Valley podcast creator Gilbert King for a conversation that connects wrongful conviction, racial injustice, and the raw power of storytelling across decades of American history. 

King shares how his research into Thurgood Marshall's landmark civil rights battles in the Jim Crow South led him to Leo Schofield — a Florida man who spent 36 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit while the real killer, Jeremy Scott, walked free and killed again.

He also recounts the jaw-dropp...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland pull no punches as they break down the relentless legal harassment campaign being waged against Luna Shark's journalists (and Premium Members) in the Beach v. Parker civil conspiracy to intentionally inflict emotional distress case. 

The team exposes how Greg Parker's attorneys are using “scorched-earth” litigation tactics — including vindictive depositions, invasive questioning about proprietary business operations, and the apparent use of allegedly stolen text messages — to intimidate and silence journalists covering the case(s). 

The crew then reviews the puzzling 'disappearance' of Alex Murdaugh's co-conspirator, Corey Fleming, from the SC Dep...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland break down the four-day hearing and the stunning moment when Judge Eugene “Bubba” Griffith ruled from the bench that Weldon Boyd does not receive “Stand Your Ground” immunity.

The team analyzes Weldon Boyd's day-long testimony, which the judge found not credible.  Central to the ruling was the failure to prove a fundamental core argument that destroyed the defense's credibility: the claim that Scott Spivey shot first. The evidence proved less conclusive, and as Eric explains, when it’s perceived a defendant lies about the most important detail...

Today's Spivey v. Boyd/Williams hearing is available to all on our YouTube channel. Or Join LUNASHARK Premium to Join Our Hosts for all the context and community.

But first... Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney Eric Bland break down the stunning oral arguments in Alex Murdaugh's murder conviction appeal before the South Carolina Supreme Court — and they have a lot of questions about the questions that weren't asked. 

The team dissects how the justices appeared to do the defense's heavy lifting, going hard on Judge Newman's evidentiary dec...

Investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ sit down with Matth Shaer, the journalist and co-founder of Campside Media behind some of the most compelling true crime podcasts of the past decade - Over My Dead Body, Suspect, and Origin Stories.

Matt opens up about the evolution of true crime podcasting, from his early days working with Wondery to building Campside Media, and the ethical tightrope walk of turning real tragedies into narrative entertainment. 

Matt brings a unique perspective on building audience trust while maintaining journalistic integrity. He shares why some stories...

Today we need to address alarming developments in press freedom as independent journalists, including Don Lemon, face federal charges for violating the FACE Act of 1994.

Then Liz reintroduces a case we covered on True Sunlight #134 involving Anijah Yarnell, who claimed self-defense after shooting Michael Pennington in 2020. However, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson unusually appealed the decision—contrasting sharply with Wilson's public opposition to charge others like Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams.

Then we’re sharing an excerpt from Liz and Mandy’s recent appearance on Laura Richard’s Crime An...

In this episode, investigative journalists ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ and attorney⁠ Eric Bland confront a troubling throughline connecting professional discipline, prosecutorial discretion, and the rapid erosion of constitutional norms.

Eric recounts a chilling professional reality: an SC Bar disciplinary investigation triggered by harsh—but truthful—excise of free speech, while far more serious attorney misconduct across South Carolina goes untouched.  From there, the discussion turns to newly filed deposition testimony, and the hosts break down how witness narratives can subtly “evolve” under pressure.

The final segment widens the lens to the streets of Minnesota, as th...

Maggie Freleng, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, joins ⁠⁠Mandy Matney⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Liz Farrell⁠⁠ to discuss her career trajectory, starting from her early days in journalism to her work on the pivotal "Suave" podcast. She shares insights on the Maura Murray case, which she investigated, and the impact of true crime podcasts on public perception and law enforcement.

In this compelling episode, Freleng—creator of the acclaimed "Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County" podcast—discusses her journey from aspiring travel blogger to leading voice in wrongful conviction journalism. We’re exploring the fascinating dichotomy between accountability journalism and innocence work, with Liz Farrell de...