Rock Star To Homicide Prosecutor

Send us Fan MailA touring rock musician cuts his hair, puts on a suit, and walks into a Chicago courtroom, then ends up trying murder cases when the city is at a boiling point. That’s the real-life origin story of our guest, Greg Owen, a former Cook County prosecutor who went from sharing stages with legendary acts to learning homicide trials inside a system battling both violence and corruption.We talk through the pivot that changed Greg’s life overnight, what it takes to survive early courtroom work with almost no time to prepare, and how corruption can quietly tilt outcomes through the “right” judge, the “right” lawyer, and evidence that disappears at the worst possible moment. Greg then takes us inside the double murder case that stayed with him for decades, the one that became his book Convergence with Jonathan Dixon, and explains why the prosecution point of view is so rarely told and so revealing.From there, the stakes escalate into gang prosecutions, contract killings, and the kind of danger most people never imagine comes with the job, including a documented plot involving a stolen surface-to-air missile. We close with Greg’s practical breakdown of insanity defenses, why “the devil made me do it” doesn’t land with juries, and how the Lindsay Clancy trial shows the power and the pitfalls of expert testimony in modern criminal court.If you like true crime, courtroom strategy, and the human side of prosecution, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.Support the show