Justice Meets Grace at the Bench

Robert Brenneman

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We’re all flawed, fallen human beings

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In This Episode

We live in a messy world where relationships go south and people hurt each other, sometimes violently. The criminal justice system is meant to answer that harm. But what happens inside the mind and heart of the person handing down the sentences?

Judge Kristine Osterday took an unlikely road to the bench: a first-generation college student from a blue-collar family, who followed what she calls “a call she was smart enough not to get in the way of.” In this conversation with host Rob Brenneman, she speaks candidly about faith and vocation, why she’s passionate about presiding over one of the hardest dockets: domestic violence,and where she believes the justice system, faith communities, and the rest of us are still falling short.

Credits

Host: Rob Brenneman

Senior Producer: Yebu Ji

Sound Engineering: Grant Bachman & Alex Dugger

Background Research: Alaina Wolfe

Illustrator: Senna Duan

Marketing Manager: Melissa Troyer

Audience Engagement Manager: Courtney Dobrzykowski

Directed by: Duane Stoltzfus

Music

Theme Music: Umbilical Moonrise by Lotus

Big River Run by Blue Dot Sessions

Eleven Count by Blue Dot Sessions

Just Stories is a collaboration of the Religion, Justice, and Society Department and the Communication Department at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, part of the More Than Just Stories project, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Guest

Kristine Osterday

Judge of Elkhart County’s Superior Court 1.

Since 2018, Hon. Kristine A. Osterday (B.S. ’01) has served as a judge for the Elkhart County Superior Court. Born in Valparaiso, she grew up in Elkhart County and attended Northridge High School. She is a graduate of IU South Bend and Valparaiso School of Law.

Elkhart Superior Court No. 1