From the Ashes

August 29, 2019·37 min·3 clips

Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick calls from federal prison to discuss his 28-year sentence and claims of innocence.

The episode opens in February 2018 with producers visiting Detroit and meeting reporter Charlie LaDuff in a run-down rental house in the city's North End. LaDuff traces Detroit's corruption back to 1701 and Antoine Cadillac, through KKK-linked mayor Charles Bowles, and up to Kwame Kilpatrick's 28-year federal sentence. He uses the metaphor of wallpaper covering maggots to describe how Detroit's former wealth masked its dysfunction. LaDuff then drives the producers past the abandoned Wayne County Jail site on Gratiot Avenue, where roughly $400 million in public money was spent with nothing built, the funds absorbed by contractors and political contributions. The episode then shifts to a phone call with Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving his sentence at a federal prison and calls the producers a few times a month. Kilpatrick describes his prison routine — leading church worship, singing in the choir, and teaching a business law class — and frames his incarceration as a period of reflection. A key segment covers President Obama's 2015 visit to El Reno Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, where Kilpatrick was housed. Kilpatrick describes watching the presidential motorcade from his barred cell window and reflects on the diverging paths of two men who once had similar political trajectories. Obama did not speak with Kilpatrick during the visit, and when Obama later commuted 330 sentences in a single day, Kilpatrick was not among them. Kilpatrick says Obama 'dissed' him and that his clemency application was wrongly denied. Kilpatrick's family launched the Free Kwame Project, arguing his sentence is excessive and racially motivated. His youngest son Jonas recorded a rap in support. Supporters in Detroit echo the sentiment that a white politician in the same circumstances would have received a lighter sentence. Reporter Charlie LaDuff acknowledges the racial double standard in media coverage but is unequivocal that Kilpatrick is guilty. In a direct exchange, LaDuff tells Kilpatrick to stop blaming others and own his actions. Kilpatrick maintains that his only criminal mistake was lying about an extramarital affair, which made everything else seem believable. The producers note they have seen overwhelming evidence of bribery and kickbacks and that Kilpatrick has provided no evidence disproving his guilt. The episode then turns to Detroit's present, noting the city elected its first white mayor in 40 years, Mike Duggan, who won with 83% Black electorate support and has overseen a downtown revival. However, the recovery is concentrated in downtown and midtown, while large swaths of the city where Black residents live remain impoverished and neglected. A campaign rally for Coleman Young II, son of Detroit's first Black mayor, captures the political backlash against gentrification and Duggan's administration. Young II loses to Duggan by more than two to one. Reporter Charlie LaDuff also reveals a federal corruption investigation into Duggan's demolition program, suggesting kickbacks from city contracts. Standing on the porch of their rental house, LaDuff and the producers survey the surrounding decay — abandoned homes, demolition pits, lead paint, asbestos — while noting that the 'Motor City Miracle' is only a few blocks away but not reaching this street. The episode closes with Detroit's city motto, 'Rise from the Ashes,' as an open question rather than a declaration.

As heard by us

A tough Detroit reckoning with Kwame Kilpatrick's sentence, race, prison time, and what accountability should cost.

Kwame Kilpatrick's 28-year sentence sits at the center of this Crimetown episode, and the argument around it is messier than a simple redemption pitch. His family and supporters, including his youngest son Jonas, push the Free Kwame Project and ask for resentencing.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a Detroit story that turns a prison sentence into a citywide argument.

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