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 "mental retardation" ...
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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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I Didn't Do That Murder; New Light On Old Case
Based on questions reporter Christine Young raised in her reporting of a 1987 murder conviction, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, in a rare decision, is re-investigating the murder case of Michaelanne Hall, a prostitute brutally murdered in 1989. The man convicted for the crime, Lebrew Jones, was a mentally retarded security guard and his conviction rested on a nonsensical statement he gave to police. Now 51, Jones is awaiting DNA test results from the fingernail clippings of the murder victim. Also, a potentially viable suspect has emerged as a result of Young's work.
Tags: wrongful conviction; Manhattan medical examiner's office; prostitution; runaways; murder; DNA testing; Innocence Project; developmentally disabled
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D.C. Government Investigations
The Legal Times series looks into the social and criminal justice problems in Washington. Some included findings that the U.S. Attorney's Office hid details about suspect drug buys by an informant during a major sting operation. Other atricles discuss the suicides of two mentally ill patients in a D.C. jail, and imprisonment of local inmated past their release dates.
Tags: group homes; retarded; handicapped; dry cleaner; Thomas Fitsum Alemayehu; Alicia Edwards; police; Melonie Nelson;
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Broken Promises, Broken Lives
An investigation finds "widespread mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri, including sexual assaults, beatings and neglect in thousands of incidents that led to hundreds of injuries and 21 deaths." Further, the state has not followed its own law and policies in the investigation and reporting of the mistreatment, drawing the ire of the federal government. In addition, the police and prosecutors did not always do their own investigations "of suspicious incidents." The newspaper also discovered that "the public and private system of care relies on underpaid, overworked caregivers in dangerous jobs with little training."
Tags: Mentally retarded; handicapped; sexual assault; beating; neglect; sexual offenders
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MRDD Boss Profits from his Nonprofit
This series of articles investigates how a nonprofit CEO routed money from the organization into his own private business. Findings included misrepresentation, diversion of cash and possible tax evasion.
Tags: nonprofit; Leadership First; Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities; MRDD; Ohio State University; charity; money
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Caring for Society's Most Vulnerable
The Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in northern St. Louis County houses nearly 400 mentally retarded residents. This series investigates accusations of staff abuse and neglect, along with one case surrounding the death of one resident. Because of the series, the state reopened investigations of abuse and neglect at Bellefontaine. Forty-seven workers were suspended and six were fired.
Tags: Bellefontaine Habilitation Center; Missouri Department of Mental Health; abuse; neglect
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Law and Disorder: How Oklahoma's Courts Cope with the Mentally Disabled.
The World details the issue of the treatment of those who mentally challenged defendents who are declared incompetent to stand trial by the court. This report describes as to how these defedents are often released back into the community where they only end up committing new offenses, often sex crimes involving children.Furthermore, "companies paid by the state to supervise the mentally retarded have failed to do their jobs, resulting in criminal charges being brought against their clients. There have also been cases where judges have ordered dangerous incompetent defendents to be placed in nuring rooms.
Tags: legilature; Jeff Dean Marks; Department of Mental Health
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Kentucky's longest serving inmate
The Courier-Journal reports that "Kentucky's longest serving inmate -- the nation's sixth longest prisoner -- is a mentally retarded and mentally ill man who has spent 50 years behind bars and whom experts say never should have been prosecuted because he was incompetent for trial and insane at the time of the crime."
Tags: mentally retarded; mentally ill; longest-serving inmates; crime; prisoners; incompetent; sentencing; Corrections Department
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Fatal Errors, Secret Deaths
"Despite a history of official insistence that untimely deaths are virtually nonexistent in Connecticut's 774 groups homes for the mentally retarded, a Courant investigation found evidence of neglect, staff error or other questionable circumstances in one out of every 10 deaths over the past decade."
Tags: group homes; mentally retarded; neglect; State Department of Mental Retardation; Connecticut
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My Brother's Keeper
"Residents of a state-run institution for the developmentally disable and mentally retarded have been physically, emotionally and sexually abused for years. At times medical treatment has been inadequate, and life-threatening. Politics and fear kept employees and families from speaking out. State and federal investigations have been cursory and have not addressed long-term systemic problems." This collection of stories document this abuse and reveal how it was covered.
Tags: abuse; mental health; political connections; Human Rights Committee; Medicare; Medicaid; State Board of Medical Examiners; doctors