Tag Archives: investigative reporting

Media File Articles

TIPS FROM A PRO ON INVESTIGATING DEATH ROW CASES, by A. Clay Thompson

 

California has the most populous death row in America with some 517 inmates. Texas leads the nation in executions with 92 since 1976. Nationwide approximately 3,500 condemned men and women are currently waiting to die. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, this country executed 74 inmates in 1997, the most recent year for which data is available. Since the states began killing again in 1977, more than 460 men and women have been put to death. In the past few years Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his students have helped liberate three wrongfully convicted condemned men through two class projects in investigative reporting (their work wasn’t published but was covered by the press and used by the defense lawyers). Inspired by those successes, MediaFile asked a prominent local defense investigator for tips on digging into death-row cases. Because of concerns about compromising his investigations, he asked to remain anonymous for this interview. Investigator X has been battling capital punishment for two decades on numerous fronts. The longtime Oakland resident has penned essays detailing the arbitrary and racist nature of the death penalty for The New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. He has spearheaded activist campaigns against state killing and the prison-industrial complex. He has witnessed one of California’s six contemporary executions. And for the past nine years, Investigator X has traveled the nation and the globe digging up exculpatory evidence for the defense of condemned prisoners. Continue reading TIPS FROM A PRO ON INVESTIGATING DEATH ROW CASES, by A. Clay Thompson →

Media File Articles

REPORTER’S FILE: Using Tax Returns to Investigate Nonprofit Organizations, by Mónica L. López

Unlike commercial businesses, nonprofit organizations tend to operate at the edge of the public eye. There are no commercials or product announcements, and few publicists. Many nonprofits work on shoestring budgets to provide some sort of community.service and do not expect to make money. In exchange, California nonprofits do not have to pay federal or state income taxes. But sometimes creative means of makings ends meet can go awry. Whether a nonprofit’s mission and guidelines have fallen by the wayside or a financially successful organization proves too strong a temptation for some high-ranking employee, there are times when reporters will want to look behind the do-gooder façade of a nonprofit and examine its operations and finances. Continue reading REPORTER’S FILE: Using Tax Returns to Investigate Nonprofit Organizations, by Mónica L. López →