Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


2

Death Row Challenges Hurt by Newsroom Cuts

Lawyers fear shortage of media resources may result in innocent people being executed

Share

(Newser) – The huge cuts in newsroom staff around the country may have inadvertently condemned some innocent prisoners to death, the New York Times reports. Lawyers complain that many of the investigative journalists who would have once hotly pursued a story about a wrongly accused Death Row inmate aren't working any more. Overworked reporters who remain are less inclined to take stories that require plenty of legwork.

Stories that were being written three years ago that supplemented the legal work undertaken by innocence projects are just not appearing, said the director of Florida's Innocence Project. The cuts have also hit anti-death penalty campaigns seeking to exonerate prisoners who have already been executed.

The gurney used to restrain condemned prisoners during the lethal injection process lies empty in the Texas death house in Huntsville, Texas.
The gurney used to restrain condemned prisoners during the lethal injection process lies empty in the Texas death house in Huntsville, Texas.   (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
An unidentified death row inmate waits in his cell in the North Condemned Unit at Pontiac Correctional Institution in Pontiac, Ill.
An unidentified death row inmate waits in his cell in the North Condemned Unit at Pontiac Correctional Institution in Pontiac, Ill.   (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

It’s extremely troubling. Some of the leading investigative journalists in this country have been given golden parachutes or laid off.
- Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.24.09
Murdoch and Microsoft: The Mice Are Trying to Roar
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
2 comments
VIEWING:
 
oldgoat
May 21, 09 6:38 AM CDT
Maybe the lawyers should be or have done the legwork that they now are expecting the journalists to do for them now. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
bacimom
May 21, 09 10:25 AM CDT
This ought to make Wolff very (un)happy Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

21 Stories

Student Journos in Court Over Murder Investigation

Northwestern's acclaimed Innocence Project under fire

Nov 11, 09 10:40 AM CST
(Newser) - A group of Illinois journalism students found themselves in court yesterday, accused of flirting with and paying off sources during a 2003-2006 investigation for the Medill Innocence Project. The Northwestern students claim to have uncovered evidence exonerating Anthony McKinney, convicted in 1982 of murdering a security guard. Both sides went... More »

MORE ABOUT:
murder • journalism • Illinois • wrongful conviction • journalist • Innocence Project • Northwestern University • Anthony McKinney

Ga. Death Row Inmate Wins New Hearing

Supreme Court gives convicted cop killer a stay of execution

Aug 17, 09 12:42 PM CDT
(AP) - The Supreme Court says condemned inmate Troy Davis should get another chance to prove his innocence before the state of Georgia executes him. The high court today ordered a federal judge in Georgia to determine whether there is evidence that proves Davis did not kill a police officer in 1991.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
death penalty • execution • death row • cop killer • John Paul Stevens • US Supreme Court • Troy Davis

OPINION

 With News, 
 'We Get What 
 We Pay For' 

Sick media must not die

May 10, 09 11:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - We know the mainstream media is sick, but it doesn’t have to die, writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. When television appeared, people worried it would eat movies, Broadway, and radio; all these forms still exist, having “learned to adapt and to collaborate with the monster.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • newspaper • journalism • free • Frank Rich • new media • business models • reporting • investigative journalism

21 Stories


High cost becomes argument against capital punishment
Christian Science Monitor


Crime & Courts  •  Media 
TwitterFollow @NewserCrime on Twitter

 
execution • journalism • exonerate • death row • Innocence Project • investigative journalism • exoneration

from our news partners