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 "public defenders" ...
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Public payroll series; Harper family murders; Arvin grand jury investigation
The Bakersfield Californian uses open public records to investigate government issues. State employees such as school principals were making twice the state average. Reporters uncovered these statistics using records open to the public. They also found that firefighters were raking in money as part of their overtime commitments. The second set of stories investigates the multiple murders in Bakersfield where the suspect is a elementary school vice principal. Another story covers how the newspaper has defended an unprecedented restraint attempt by the county grand jury.
Tags: FOI; Multiple murders; Harper murders; State payroll; Arvin; Grand jury investigation
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Unclogging Gideon's trumpet: Mississippi suits are the latest to attack state defense funding.
The National Law Journal examines the state of criminal defense spending by states, most notably Mississippi. David E. Rovella writes "defense lawyers contend that budgets for already-overtaxed indigent defense systems are flat or have been cut. And in states without a public defense system, they argue, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright, which guarantees state-funded indigent criminal defense, is ineffective." The National Law Journal writes about "three lawsuits filed in a recent weeks have challenged the way Mississippi provides criminal defense to the poor. They are the latest in a handful of suits nationwide attacking what defense lawyers say is the hidden price of war on crime: the erosion of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel."
Tags: Gideon v. Wainwright; right to counsel; Sixth Amendment; U.S. Supreme Court; Mississippi; public defense; public defender; law; legal; public defense system; lawsuits; poor; crime
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Unequal loyalty
ABA Journal invetigates how some federal public defenders try to serve two masters -- judges who appoint them and clients they represent. The article tells the story of New Mexico prosecutor Tova Indritz who "was punished for caring more about the interests of her clients than of the courts where she practiced."
Tags: Hispanics; Latinos; criminal defense; American Indians; judges; courts
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Justice in Black, White, & Shades of Gray
In central Florida, African-Americans get longer mandatory minimum prison terms than whites accused of the same firearms crimes. The story came about thanks to a black defendant who complained that his race influenced his sentencing in a firearms case. After obtaining the appropriate database from the state attorney's office, Pipitone found this claim to be true as well as other implications of racial discrimination.
Tags: race; criminal justice; crime; courts; sentencing; judges; minimum sentencing; prison; corrections; attorney; lawyer; public attorney; racial discrimination; firearms; guns; tape; transcript
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Unequal Justice
The Journal Sentinel tells the stories of poor defendants in Wisconsin who are denied their constitutional right to counsel, and often plead guilty and serve time despite being innocent. The main findings are that Milwaukee County sets inadequate poverty lines, in discrepancy with federal and state poverty lines, which leave many have-nots without appointed attorneys; judges are reluctant to appoint attorneys at county expense; when lawyers are appointed, defendants are billed by the state.
Tags: crime; public defenders; prosecutors; law; courts
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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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Juries and Justice
In a two-part series the Chicago Reporter examines "the racial composition of juries in Cook County, and how the racial make-up of juries might affect their verdicts." The first part reveals that whites and suburbanites are selected to serve on juries in numbers disproportinately high, according to demographic analysis of the county's population. The major finding in the second part is that all-white juries more often reached guilty verdicts for black defendants than juries that included at least three people from mostly black neighborhoods.
Tags: judges; prosecutors; courts; litigation; crime; Illinois Appellate Court; the Cook County Public Defender; low income; poverty; racial disparity; CAR; Database Mapping Project
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Miami Cops
A Miami Daily Business Review two-year investigation into police criminality reveals "a deadly scandal at the Miami Police Department." The stories document "flaws and bias in the local system used to investigate police shootings." The series started in 2000 with investigation of the death of a 72-year old widower who was machine-gunned by police during a ferocious 1996 drug raid, and of the following $2.5-million settlement of the lawsuit brought by the victim's family. In a federal investigation, Miami officers involved in the shooting were later accused of "conspiracy, lying and fabricating evidence to cover up misconduct," the Review reports. The series also examines "Miami's costly litigation experience over the last decade defending claims of brutality and lawlessness by police."
Tags: indictments; Florida's public record law; crime; litigation; civil rights; SWAT; homicide; conflicts of interest; law enforcement; justice; Miami Office of Professional Compliance; wrongful death; false arrests; abuse
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Power of 12
ABA Journal reports on " growing trend among jurors to use their power to demand societal changes that reach far beyond the specific case in which they are involved." The story points to ten cases throughout the country, in which jurors issued "megabuck" verdicts that they believed would solve public policy questions. The report cites some defenders' complaints that juries are the least informed and the least qualified bodies to make decisions that put giant corporations out of business. The article includes the results from a study by the Dallas Morning News and the Souther Methodist University Law Review, which has identified more that 250 cases in which jury verdicts indeed led to some change.
Tags: judges; lawyers; business; tobacco companies; corporations; verdicts; HMOs; gun makers; health insurance; Humana Inc.; Dallas Catholic Diocese
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Home Free
The ABC 7 I-Team found that "every day in U.S. criminal courts, defendants are sentenced to home confinement. The public presumes that the criminals are actually following the court order by staying at home. But our investigation found that even the U.S. Probation Department, which administers home confinement, believes the system is ripe for abuse."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; house arrest; crime; criminals; probation; U.S. Probation Department