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 "right to counsel" ...
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Protecting the Doctors
KMGH-TV found that when Colorado doctors are accused of sexual assault and/or improper conduct investigations are handled by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. The administrative investigation reports all criminal acts and findings to the state's attorney general who represents the agency. Because the A.G. represents the agency, it has no obligation under the law to notify or counsel the victim. The result is many doctors simply surrender their license and then are free because no charges are pressed before statute of limitations runs out. Doctors are then able to file for a reinstatement of medical license anywhere, because files are sealed. After this report legislation was passed to close this loop hole.
Tags: medicine; doctors; sexual assault; investigation; medical license; Colorado; victim rights; statute of limitation; Kim Nagel; Attorney General
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The Plane Truth
Anand Kilari self proclaims to be one of the largest Christian ministers in the world. He has ties to "right-wing movers and shakers" as well as claiming "to have counseled despots like Charles Taylor and Saddam Hussein." However the focus of his ministry’s finances has seemingly gone into his plane. "In fact, if you scrape the surface, you will discover that Kilari has spent the last 25 years pretending to be a big shot- and fooling most people most of the time."
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Nobody's Hero
This is an investigation into the Defense Department agency Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and its unreliability in helping returned servicemen and women reclaim their jobs upon return from deployment in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 560,000 National Guard members and reservists have been deployed to the Middle East, "the largest mobilization of citizen-soldiers since World War II." But thousands of the more than 460,000 who have returned home after completing their service are finding that employers are reluctant to allow them to return to work. The reservists can seek help from federal agencies including the Departments of Labor, Justice, Defense and the Office of Special Counsel, but the "military brass strongly encourages the rank and file" to ask the ESGR for assistance. Yet ESGR is disorganized and does not always give helpful advice.
Tags: Military Reservists; Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve; formed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act; disenfranchised veterans; veterans' issues; nobody's hero
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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 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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INS fails to see the light
The National Law Journal reports on how the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been denying detained aliens the right to hear a presentation about their legal options from a group of New York lawyers. "Under rules promulgated in 1998, the lawyers should have been able to do so, but were stymied for a year and half, even as the agency proudly announced the expansion of the legal access program to federal prisons and county jails," the story reveals.
Tags: American Bar Association; human rights; civic rights; legal counsel; detainees; deportation
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You're in the Hole: A Crackdown on Dissident Prisoners
A Progressive investigation reveals that "in the hours following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, dissident prisoners were singled out from the general population and take to secure housing units." Some of the isolated inmates were denied access to counsel; their lawyers were denied phone conversations and personal visits with their clients. Cusac finds that most of the segregated prisoners happened to be peace-activists or left-wing. Without any public comment, six weeks after Sept. 11 the Justice Department implemented an interim rule that justified the infringement on the detainees' human rights, and explained the new policy with intelligence and law enforcement concerns.
Tags: Amnesty International; human rights; civil rights; terrorism; John Ashcroft; attorneys; lawyers; military
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No title (id: 13492)
Rolling Stone magazine looks at the state of abortion rights in rural states, such as Mississippi. While abortion may still be legal, lawmakers in many rural areas make it nearly impossible for women to choose to have abortions. Many states now require expensive abortion facilities, controversial counseling, permission for minors from both parents and even waiting periods before abortions will be granted. (June 27, 1996)
Tags: Rosenberg The stealth war against abortion Teenage pregnancy Abortion rights Courts 6 pgs.
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No title (id: 13041)
Air Force Times takes a close look at the string of errors that left former Airman Dean Mellberg free to shoot Maj. Thomas E. Brigham and others June 20, 1994, at the base near Spokane, Wash. Five died in a situation that could have been avoided had there not been a series of miscommunications such as the attending military physician failing to comment on the medical history form when Mellberg disclosed that he had previous mental-health counseling. (Dec. 11, 1995)
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Open Secrets: Medical Data Gathered by Firms Can Prove Less Than Confidential
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Adolph Coors Co. Brewery in Golden, Colo, opened an employee wellness center, housing a state-of-the-art gym, medical clinic and counseling center. In doing so, the Coors Co. now has complete access to employee's medical records, eroding workers' medical privacy, particularly when employees file for benefits claiming job-related injuries or stress.