Justice (courts/crime/law)
Iowa drivers dodge high fines, license penalties
The Des Moines Register used data on driving-related offenses in Iowa to identify 78,000 people who owe at least $500 in fines. Reporter Lee Rood and data analyst Michael Corey found “The outstanding debt that all Iowans owe for everything from overdue speeding tickets to drunk driving fines to law enforcement surcharges is at a…
Read MoreLicense to Carry
In a four-part series, Megan O’Matz and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examined Florida’s concealed weapons law and found that licenses have been issued to hundreds of people who, due to their criminal histories, wouldn’t stand a chance of getting them in most other states. Courts have found them responsible for assaults, burglaries,…
Read MoreNo Defense: Shortcut to Death Row
Stephen Henderson, Supreme Court correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, evaluated the quality of defense lawyering in four states, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia in a three-part series based on in-depth review of 80 cases from 1997 to 2004. By failing to investigate their clients’ histories, lawyers in these 73 cases fell far short of the 20-year-old…
Read MoreEmail reveals Port of Seattle police scandal
Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer expose an explicit email and Internet scandal within the Port of Seattle Police Department. The reporters used public records requests to obtain internal investigation documents and personnel records showing that nearly one-third of the Port’s police force sent, received and exchanged racist, sexist and explicit emails…
Read MoreEstate laws in Texas easily abused
Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman reports on short-comings in Texas estate laws which make it easy to defraud the deceased. “State probate laws don’t ensure that a deceased person’s assets actually get to heirs
Read MoreSexual misconduct problem for Oregon officers
Ian Demsky of Willamette Week in Portland, Ore., investigated the records of law enforcement and corrections officers in Oregon who had their licenses revoked. Since 2002, about one third of the revocations stemmed from sexual misconduct.
Read MoreTexas law hog-ties defense attorneys
Jeremy Rogalski and 11 News Investigates of KHOU-Houston exposed an open secret of the Texas justice system: Texas prosecutors are not letting defense attorneys see basic documents, such as police reports, witness statements, and even DNA lab results, before trial. A Texas state law practically eliminates pretrial discovery often leaving defense attorneys unable to prepare…
Read MoreConflict of interest in sealed guardianship cases
In the on-going series “Your Court, Their Secrets” investigating closed court records, Cheryl Phillips, Maureen O’Hagan and Justin Mayo of The Seattle Times uncovered conflicts of interest in sealed guardianship cases. “Only a small circle of lawyers practice in the guardianship field. Some say that to make a good living they cannot limit their practice…
Read MoreClocking the Cops
Tisha Thompson of WMAR-Baltimore found that police officers in Baltimore continuously broke speed limits, sometimes by over 10mph, even in the absence of an emergency. The investigation revealed that in an emergency, fifty percent of the police cars drove at more than 10 mph over the speed limit.Armed with hidden cameras, the investigators also found…
Read MoreViolent crime in Houston on the rise
Mark Greenblatt of KHOU-TV looks at a surge in violent crimes in Houston – an increase of 22% in the last 2 years. For the story, Greenblatt used Access, Excel, ArcGIS, and CrimeStat to first look for trends in rise in specific crimes, then mapped them out to find further trends. Included in the report…
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