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 "reopened cases" ...
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Conviction
This is a 10-year hidden camera investigation into a likely case of a wrongful conviction in New York City. Ultimately, our broadcast triggered the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to officially reopen and reinvestigate the case as part of its newly created “Conviction Integrity Unit.” Our investigation may also have led to the identity of the real murder suspect. It was reported by Luke Russert.
Tags: conviction; attorney; murder; suspect
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Tainted Justice
The police department is believed to have tainted police jobs, which are caused by lies and motivated by power, greed, and money. Furthermore, the squads are suspected of looting mom-and-pop stores, terrorizing hard-working immigrant merchants, preying on women, and fabricating evidence. These submissions could reopen and potentially overturn hundreds of cases.
Tags: police; justice system; justice department; protection; cops; squad; officers; narcotics; drugs; police department
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The Mysterious Death of Janie Ward
This hour-long report is a result of a five-year investigation into the death of a 16-year-old girl 20 years ago in a small town in the Ozarks. It's about two daughters -- one wealthy and popular (a cheerleader and beauty queen); the other poor and self-conscious. It's about two fathers -- one a powerful judge who allegedly shielded his daughter from the law he's sworn to uphold; the other a bail bondsman who is trying to avenge his daughter's death. And it's about one family's fight for justice against what they believe is a corrupt judicial system that closed ranks around the powerful judge to cover-up a murder. When 16-year-old Jamie Ward fell off a 9-inch porch in the woods near Marshall, Ark., on September 9, 1989, her parents refused to blieve that the fall had killed their healthy teenager. Instead, they began to suspect to suspect she was murdered by the judge's daughter. After years of demanding an investigation into her death, an independent medical examiner associated with Parents for Murdered Children exhumed Janie's body a second time for an extremely rare third autopsy. Because the case was 20 years old, most of the files were not digital; rather, the investigation focused on old-fashioned reporting: finding and interviewing eyewitnesses (all of whom had not been reinterviewed since the original investigation); analyzing inconsistencies in the witness statements, double-checking the forensics with independent experts.
Tags: autopsy; unsolved death; forensic science; criminal justice system; reopened cases; Arkansas
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In Pursuit of a Sexual Predator
A narrative account of a bungled hunt for one of Louisville's most prolific serial rapists, a manipulative predator who attacked 14 women over four years and escaped detection in part because of sloppy police and turf battles. Evidence was lost in some cases and in others rape kits weren't processed to save money. The newspaper's account showed how a single detective who believed the crimes were connected was able to convince his supervisors they were linked and how he reopened cases that others had closed for lack of evidence.
Tags: rape; sexual predator; police; Louisville; Kentucky; lost evidence; serial rapist; Open Records Act
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Murder at the Palladium
Dateline investigated a 1990 murder at the Palladium nightclub, of which two men were wrongly convicted. Two detectives sought to re-open the case but were turned down by the Manhattan DA. Dateline obtained an interview with a "third shooter" suspect; afterward the two incarcerated men were exonerated and the interviewee was arrested. The New York Times cited the story in an editorial calling for the release of the two innocent convicts.
Tags: New York; murder; Palladium; innocence; wrongful conviction; Homicide Task Force; criminal justice system.
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Adoption deal questioned
The Star investigated the adoption of twins by Stephen F. Mellinger, a single New Jersey schoolteacher, who, through the Indiana-based Surrogate Mothers Inc., hired a woman in South Carolina to bear a child for him. Following the twins' premature birth in an Indianapolis hospital, it became clear that Mellinger was unequipped to care for them properly. The newspaper found information on Mellinger unknown to child-welfare officials, who were either unwilling or unable to travel out of state, persuaded a judge to reopen the case file, helped state officials find eight other interstate adoptions similar to this case and brought to light the need for greater oversight in surrogacy and adoption.
Tags: child welfare; interstate adoptions; Surrogate Mothers Inc.; surrogacy; CAR; Stephen Mellinger
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US Company Paying Off Terrorists?
An employee of US mining company, Echo Bay, displays documents showing that they paid off Abu Sayyaf terrorists to let Echo Bay mine in the Phillipines. The US Justice Department, which had closed its investigation of the case, re-opened it after the story aired.
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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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Deal exposes judge to conflict of interest charges
This is a two part series, the first reveals that a judge who was also a realtor, struck a deal with a teenager's father to sell a mansion to reduce the boys' sentencing.The second part deals with how the teenager who was accused of assault was arrested again a month later and his case was to go before the same judge. But due to the real estate dealings, the case passed on to another judge. This caused the reporter to ask for the previous case to be re-opened on the pretext that the accused received preferential treatment in the first hearing due to the financial dealings.
Tags: Judge John Voetsch; FOIA; preferential treatment while sentencing; Commission on Judicial Conduct; Patrick Rukaj
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Innocent
This story from the San Francisco Bay Guardian investigates the conviction of two people who had spent more than a decade behind bars. The reporter found out that the police department had withheld evidence in the trial including eye witness testimony that absolved them of the crime. Backed by this investigation and re-opening of the case, the two were released from prison after thirteen years in prison.
Tags: innocent conviction; John. J Tennison; Roderick Shannon; Antoine Goff; withholding evidence; eyewitness testimony; re-opening cases