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He’s Facing Execution For His Daughter’s Death. Now, Science Suggests It Was An Accident.
Long after he retired from solving murders in rural east Texas, Brian Wharton looked back on one of his biggest cases with unease. A father named Robert Roberson had shown up at an emergency room with his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. She was unconscious and turning blue. The father speculated that she’d fallen out of bed, but a pediatrician concluded that she had been shaken “very forcefully.” As a detective with the Palestine Police Department, Wharton deduced the father was to blame and testified at the 2003 trial, where Roberson was sentenced to death. But Wharton never could make sense of the man’s demeanor throughout these events. “He’s not getting mad, he’s not getting sad, he’s just not right,” Wharton recalled. Twenty years later, a defense lawyer showed up at the detective’s door, explaining that Roberson’s affect could be explained by Autism Spectrum Disorder. But that wasn’t all. Many in the medical community had turned against the diagnosis at the heart of his conviction: “Shaken Baby Syndrome.” Wharton quickly came to believe he’d helped send an innocent man to death row. “I took a deep breath and said, ‘Okay, now we begin to make this right,’” he said. “Fortunately, he’s still alive when science comes to his rescue.”
What Federal Judges’ Rulings Reveal About the Memphis Police Tactics
It was a warm weekday afternoon, and Maurice Vaughn had just pulled into his brother-in-law’s driveway — a Memphis police car tailing closely behind, its blue lights flashing. A detective with the police department’s Organized Crime Unit questioned Vaughn about a cracked windshield, then arrested him for driving...
Six Years of Bail Reform in Cuyahoga County: A Timeline
Calls for bail reform are not new in Cleveland or across the country. More than 50 years ago, the Federal Bail Reform Act of 1966 created a new standard which favored releasing most defendants from jail in non-death penalty cases. It also added the options for judges to set conditions for release, such as electronic monitoring or drug screening.
Cuyahoga County Judges Vowed to Reform the Bail System. Here’s What Happened.
In recent years, the Cuyahoga County court system has drastically cut its use of cash bail. That means fewer people sit in jail while awaiting trial. The shift followed calls to dismantle a bail process that created a two-tier system: one for those who could pay for their freedom and one for those who could not. Local and national reports showed those who could not were most often poor or Black.
When Police Kill and Use Victim’s Rights Laws to Stay Anonymous
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. In late July, a pregnant Black woman was fatally shot by an Ohio police officer. As 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young sat...
Migrants Desperate for Jobs Trapped in Asylum Maze
Juan Carlos Bello, a migrant from Venezuela, was out of options and money, trapped in an immigration maze. On a sweltering late summer day, he was expelled from a shelter in Brooklyn to make way for arriving migrant families. He was left to make his way in the city of immigrants on his own, stranded in the street, towing two suitcases containing all his possessions. He had been living in shelters, without a regular job, since he arrived ten months earlier after wading across the border river in Texas, his lodging and meals paid for by the city of New York.
Rebuilding Family After Foster Care
Terrick Bakhit’s loyalty to his brothers Matthew and Joseph is tattooed across his chest: “MTJ,” each letter representing the brothers’ initials. — As kids, they ran away from home together: Their mother was addicted to drugs and their grandmother beat them with a belt. The boys tried to stick together, but instead landed in California’s sprawling foster care system, growing up apart.
The Marshall Project and FRONTLINE Present ‘Two Strikes’ and ‘Tutwiler’
“Two Strikes” tells the story of Mark Jones, a 37-year-old former West Point cadet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. He is sentenced to life in prison in Florida after an unsuccessful carjacking — because of a statute that increases prison time for repeat offenders. Jones’ earlier arrests had been for minor crimes, and he spent a year in prison for stealing a $400 tool set from a Home Depot. But the “two-strikes” law allows the maximum punishment for people who commit a felony within three years of leaving prison, even for a failed carjacking attempt in which no one was physically injured.
Ending the Golden State Era of Solitary Confinement
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. It’s long been said that as goes California, so goes the nation. The most populous state carries outsized influence over...
When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row
The first time Tony Ford played Dungeons & Dragons, he was a wiry Black kid who had never seen the inside of a prison. His mother, a police officer in Detroit, had quit the force and moved the family to West Texas. To Ford, it seemed like a different world. Strangers talked funny, and El Paso was half desert. But he could skateboard in all that open space, and he eventually befriended a nerdy White kid with a passion for Dungeons & Dragons. Ford fell in love with the role-playing game right away; it was complex and cerebral, a saga you could lose yourself in. And in the 1980s, everyone seemed to be playing it.
Watch the Trailer for ‘Two Strikes’ and ‘Tutwiler’
“Two Strikes” and “Tutwiler” will be available to watch in full at pbs.org/frontline, themarshallproject.org, and in the PBS App starting at 7 p.m. EST/6 p.m. CST on Sept. 5. The two-part series will also premiere on PBS stations (check local listings) and on Frontline’s YouTube channel at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST.
The Marshall Project Wins Two Online Journalism Awards
The Marshall Project won General Excellence in Online Journalism for a medium-sized newsroom at the 2023 Online News Association awards. The Marshall Project has won a 2023 Online Journalism Award for General Excellence in Online Journalism in the medium-sized newsroom category. The criminal justice journalism outlet won the award based on several entries: its “Inside Story” video series, “Violation” podcast, “The Mercy Workers” article, an investigation into New York prison guards, and its local reporting in Cleveland.
Cruel Summer: When Basic Survival Can Become Illegal
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. In extreme heat, unhoused people are among the most vulnerable. Last year in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, they made...
Judge Celebrezze Removed From Controversial Cuyahoga County Divorce Case
Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze violated court rules when she steered a contentious but lucrative divorce case involving a longtime friend to her own docket, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling bars Celebrezze from overseeing the case, in which she has faced numerous bias allegations...
Battles Over ‘Progressive’ Prosecutors’ Decisions Heating Up
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. Back in January, when a federal judge weighed in on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to boot local prosecutor Andrew...
The Marshall Project and FRONTLINE Present Documentary Special About U.S. Prisons
The Marshall Project has collaborated with Frontline on a two-part documentary special exploring two underreported elements of the U.S. criminal justice system. The first film, produced in association with Firelight Media, examines the impact of a little-known “two-strikes” law, and the second film offers an intimate portrait of the complexities of pregnancy in prison. Airing Tue., Sept 5, at 10 p.m. EST on PBS, the hour-long special featuring “Two Strikes” and “Tutwiler” will also be available to stream online.
Prison Healthcare Means Not Knowing What’s Slowly Destroying My Body
For the first 15 years of my incarceration in Massachusetts, I didn’t have much contact with health services. I had heard horror stories, especially after the private provider Wellpath took over the state’s corrections healthcare in 2018, so I was thankful that I rarely needed anything beyond checkups. But my luck ended in 2020. That’s when I started a slow, painful and endlessly frustrating health journey that still has me wondering if I am going to live or die.
What the New Wave of Prison Art Tells Us About Incarceration Today
From LEGO sculptures to psychedelic quilts, several new exhibits convey the prison experience in ways that transcend words alone. This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. At...
Hundreds of thousands of Ohio drivers are suspended, mostly for unpaid fines.
Nizer Lukerson drives to provide. But around every street corner, he’s pursued by fear, hoping to make his next food delivery before he’s spotted by police. Lukerson is one of hundreds of thousands of Ohio drivers whose license is suspended. The state wants his money to lift the suspension, but like so many others, he can’t pay if he doesn’t work. — The 23-year-old must pay about $1,000 to remove a number of suspensions issued in local courts for minor infractions like not using a turn signal, expired plates and driving without a license. He’s said he’s chipping away at the debt through payment plans.
Federal Judge Eyes a ‘Last Resort’ Fix for New York City’s Jails
This is The Marshall Project’s Closing Argument newsletter, a weekly deep dive into a key criminal justice issue. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters here. Last month, a federal judge overseeing a court settlement seeking to make New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jails safer...
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The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.
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