This week, in our final episode of season three, the state of Ohio decides where Joshua belongs. Listen to Episode 09.

For our final episode animation, we decided to go back to court. Here is the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court building in Cleveland, where Joshua’s hearings took place. Moth Studio came up with this unique movement for the animation, which goes from the ground level up to the roof of the model.

Moth Studio also drew the illustration for this one. Since we continue Joshua’s story in the episode, we decided to show the lone deer  from the episode eight art again. Here, it is standing on its own, as the rest of the community goes about its business, seemingly detached from the criminal justice system on a whole.

This week, we tell you about Joshua, a teenager who decides to cooperate with the police and give them the information they want. He enters the juvenile system, a place where both youth and staff trade in favors and power. Listen to Episode 08.

For the animation this week, we wanted to depict a common area inside a center, a place where the kids would interact. We looked at photos of juvenile detention facilities in Ohio and in other states for inspiration, and then we created this composite version of a facility cafeteria. Moth Studio did both the animation and the mural. Here Joshua is symbolized by one lone deer outside the movement of the herd.

If you listen closely to the trash-talking, you start to get the message. This week, we follow Jesse Nickerson through the fallout of his encounters with the police. You'll also find out what ended up happening with Erimius Spencer, the guy from Episode 03 who got arrested in the hallway of his own apartment building. Listen to Episode 07 now.

An update on last week's episode: Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court announced that it will not consider reinstating the $22 million verdict a jury awarded to Arnold Black.

The art for this week features East Cleveland City Hall, where the bulk of East Cleveland’s municipal government is run. It contains the police department, the municipal court, the mayor’s office, and more. Martinez E-B, the artist who created the mural for episode six, also did the mural for this episode, continuing the focus on Jesse and his encounters with the East Cleveland Police Department. Martinez returned to the idea of the jester, except in this piece he imagined Jesse trying to fight back. Moth Studio created this animation, which takes us from the roof to the front door, and superimposed Martinez’s mural on the face of the building.

 Note: We’re off next week. We’ll be back November 8th with Episode 08. 

With this week’s episode, we’re taking a turn in our series to follow people out of the Justice Center and into their normal lives. First, we follow one man’s relationship with the police after he helped put an officer in jail. Listen to Episode 06 now.

The art this week shows the area of Forest Hill Park where Jesse, the main character in the episode, had a run-in with East Cleveland police officers. The animators at Moth Studio opted for this unique movement that takes us from the tree line to the sky.

Martinez E-B drew the illustration that Moth Studio added to the animation of the parking lot. Martinez is a native of Cleveland and now lives and works in the Chicago area. He is a multidisciplinary artist who creates work that touches on the cultural, social, and political issues of his upbringing.

Don’t tell the judges, but it’s the prosecutors who have the most power in the building. This week, we follow up on why the case against Da’Von Holmes was dropped. Was is it a technicality, or did they get the wrong guy? Then we follow a prosecutor to find out how he makes decisions, and why prosecutors are so intent on driving defendants to take a plea. Listen to Episode 05 now.

One of the cases the prosecutor tackles in this episode is an altercation on a bus that leads to a shooting. There was a lot of video footage of this unfolding, taken from many angles, inside the bus and also diagonally from across the street. We liked the idea of putting the art in motion, so Moth Studio created this animation of the bus on its route at night. We asked Adam Maida, who also did the illustration for episode two, to create the piece we superimposed on the side of the bus. He focused on the machinery of the system, since so much of this episode is about how the prosecution works from the inside. Learn more about the art this season.

What happens when the right evidence points to the wrong man? This week, we follow the story of a murder that everyone wants to solve and see how “no snitching”—a code that might be as old as crime itself—is in many ways baked into our criminal justice system. Listen to Episode 04 now.

The art for this episodes features a mural by JESS X.SNOW, and Moth Studio did the animation. We wanted it to focus on the idea of protection — protecting the city, protecting youth, protecting the streets, and protecting each other.  Learn more.

There’s an open question that haunts the courthouse in Cleveland: If you’re harmed by police, what does it take to find justice that *feels* like justice? Listen to Episode 03. 

The art for this episodes features a mural by Darius Steward, an artist born and raised in East Cleveland. Moth Studio did the animation. Learn more about the art for this season.

In Episode 01, we followed a small case: a bar fight. We wanted to see what the baseline for functional justice looks like in Cleveland. In this episode, a young woman at a bar gets slapped on the butt. So why’s *she* the one in jail? Listen here. 

Interested in our art this season? We worked with Moth Studio to create animations of Cleveland locations for each story. Then we commissioned work from muralists and artists to go in those scenes, like this one by Melody Newcomb. Learn more.

This season, we’re holding open the courthouse door, inviting you inside. There are shocking, fascinating things happening in plain sight. 

Hear episodes 1 and 2 today. 

Serial is heading back to court—this time, in Cleveland. One courthouse, week by week, starting September 20. Hear the full preview of the new season.

Hear the trailer for our new season!

If you’ve listened to Serial before, you probably know that our first season was about a murder case in Baltimore. Since then, people have asked: What does that case tell us about the criminal justice system? 

The case of Adnan Syed wasn’t typical in any way—a defendant with no criminal record, a private defense attorney, a six-week trial. The vast majority of cases don’t even go to trial. You can’t really understand how the criminal justice system works by interrogating one extraordinary case. *Ordinary* cases are where you need to look. 

This season of Serial, we do just that. We take a look at the entire criminal justice system. We spent a year inside the criminal courts in Cleveland. They gave us extraordinary access, letting us record everywhere—courtrooms, back hallways, judges’ chambers, the prosecutors’ office. As our host Sarah Koenig says, “Every case we looked into, there came a time when I said, ‘Wait, this can’t be happening.’ And then it did.” 

This season, you’ll see what we saw, from the inside. Subscribe today and get the first episode the moment it drops on September 20.

Art: building by Moth Studio, mural by Adam Maida

Season 2 Listening Guide

We made a listening guide for the maps, videos, graphics, and documents that accompany each episode, if you’re just starting this season or listening again.

Thanks for a great season and sending us so many notes and messages (we read them all). 

How the Season 2 art comes together

Site editor Whitney Dangerfield wrote up our process for working with artist Carl Burton on the animations for this season, including some early drafts and the reason why we refined the below sailboat gif.

episode 11: Present for Duty. Art by Carl Burton.

How do army analysts help a recovered hostage remember good intel? Andrea and Michelle (not their real names) talk about how an intel debriefing works. 

Emails between Obama administration officials about leaks in the months, weeks and days leading up to Bowe Bergdahl’s release. The House Armed Service Committee referenced these emails, among others, in an inquiry into the prisoner swap. (From the new Episode 10.)