The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "capital punishment" ...
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Cracked
Fetlz's investigation "exposes how junk science has allowed Texas to keep mentally retarded inmates on death row - and execute several of them - despite a 2002 Supreme Court decision, Atkins v. Virginia, that bans such punishment for these defendants.
Tags: capital punishment; criminal justice; mental retardation; death row; execution; Texas; Atkins v. Virginia
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"Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America"
In this book, author Anne-Marie Cusac reveals how America has become a nation of victims searching for revenge, rather that a "community that cares for its own." The cultural shift has impacted the criminal justice system, causing even "law-abiding" citizens at risk of "suffering retribution in American jails." The book illustrates how cultural trends have "transformed" America into a "society of punishment."
Tags: prison; jail; punishment; inmates; capital punishment; punitive physical pain; corporal punishment; Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo
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Race to Execution
"Race to Execution reveals how, beyond DNA and the issue of innocence, the shameful open secret of America's capital punishment system is a matter of race." The race of the victim's and the accused "influence the legal process" from crime scene investigation, media portrayal, to jury selection and sentencing.
Tags: race; death penalty; execution; investigation; jury; suspects; criminal justice; capital punishment
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Life and Death
This analysis of Ohio's capital punishment system looked at 1900 crimes that were potentially capital crimes. It found that offenders who killed whites were twice as likely to be sentenced to death as those who killed blacks; that more than half of capital cases ended with plea bargains; and that the possibility of a death sentence varied depending on where the crime was committed. It also discovered numerous errors in the state's collection of death penalty data.
Tags: death penalty; capital punishment; law enforcement; crime; murder; criminal justice system; plea bargains; capital crimes; Ohio
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New York Slush Funds
The three men who run New York's state government have stuck state taxpayers with more than $1 billion in debt over the last seven years for a series of secretive slush funds under their tight control. State leaders use the money to reward political friends and punish enemies. They use the money to keep rank-and-file legislators obedient. The stories show many examples of millions spent on failed or dubious projects.
Tags: taxpayers; Gov. George Pataki; Sheldon Silver; Joseph Bruno; New York City Catholic art museum; debt; Empire State Development Corp.; State of New York; New York taxpayers; Carnegie Hall; National Baseball Hall of Fame; Carrier Dome; Roswell Park Cancer Institute; Centers for Excellence; Empire Opportunity Fund; Junior Museum; capital-improvement programs; Community Enhancement Facilities Assistance Program; Strategic Investment Program; Senate Majority leader; borrowing money; legislators; public money; Kraft Foods; Guardian Industries; Canadian American Transportation Systems; Division of Human Rights; National Museum of Catholic Art and History; New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad; Dormitory Authority; IRS; Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum; Bard College; YMCA; New York's Public Officers Law; Central New York Regional Market; campaign donations; borrowed-money grants
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Uncertain Justice
The Post-Intelligencer investigates poor representation in capital punishment cases in Washington state. They found that contrary to Bar Association guidelines, trial judges frequently appoint inexperienced attorneys, one-fifth of the defendants sentenced to death have been represented by lawyers who were later disbarred, suspended or arrested, and that since 1981, 22 people have gotten off death row due to ineffective legal representation. As a result of the series, the Office of Public Defense proposed stricter rules to control the assignment of lawyers in capital cases.
Tags: death row; capitol punishment; defense attorneys; CAR
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Who Gets Death
In a five-part series the Tennessean investigates the fairness of Tennessee's death penalty. The main finding is that the justices are using a flawed computer database of first-degree murder cases to determine the fairness of death sentences. The series reports on the disciplinary records of lawyers who have handled capital cases, and reveals that one in four blacks sentenced to death in the state is sent to the death row by all-white juries.
Tags: justice; courts; judges; FOI; minorities; crime; capital punishment; executions; CAR; database mapping project
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Execution of Justice
Birmingham Post-Herald examines "whether the state of Alabama is doing enough to ensure that only the guilty are executed." The chance of facing the death penalty has dramatically increased if the victim is white rather than black, the story reveals. The series depicts cases when flimsy evidence sent suspects on death row, or when defense lawyers failed to do their job. Another finding is that Tallageda County, located about an hour's drive east of Birmingham, "has more of its residents on death row than does the entire state of New York." The Post-Herald discovers that decisions of life and death are sometimes political, that the state avoids using DNA tests that could exonerate many inmates, and that the state continues to execute retarded inmates.
Tags: crime; justice; law enforcement; capital punishment; courts; judges; murder; attorneys
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Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive Search for Justice in the Vanishing West
Jackson looks at the history of the first federal prison in America, the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. A major finding is that the prison "was built on a model intended to rehabilitate young prisoners on the frontier, the exact opposite of what it finally became." The author discovers the story of Frank Grigware, the only prisoner to ever escape from Leavenworth and remain free as an immigrant to Canada. Jackson finds that "real questions of innocence" surrounded Grigware's trial for train robbery. The book uses the stories of the prison and the prisoner as "vehicles for exploring the developing nature of justice in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." The author examines why the system of death penalty went wrong.
Tags: BOOK; FOIA; FBI; crime; justice; courts; crime; racial disparity; blacks; minorities; capital punishment
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Rideau Revisited
In a three-part series the Times of Acadiana examines the "long and peculiar career" of Wilbert Rideau, a local prisoner who was arrested and tried for the murder of Julia Ferguson in 1961. Rideau, a slender black boy at the time of his arrest has since then become an award-winning journalist and editor of the prison news magazine. In 2001 he is now facing a fourth trial. The problem is that most witnesses of the crime are dead and the murder weapons are missing, the Times reports. The series depicts the political and social climate of Louisiana in 1961 and Rideau's efforts toward rehabilitation.
Tags: crime; murder; robbery; corrections; capital punishment; death row; Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola; courts; judges; justice