court

“Every criminal trial is a competition between the prosecution and the defense. The judge has relatively less dominant role than in other countries and a lot of times, we have the guilt and innocence of…

A Fair Fight for a Fair Court: Election Year Special – Part 1

by Nancy Mullane

November 29, 2016

The 2016 elections are over. But what did we learn from the results? Over the past 11 months, Life of the Law’s team of reporters, editors and scholars have been taking a hard took at…

Bail or Bust – Transcript

by Ariel Ritchin

July 12, 2016

HOST INTRODUCTION: This month, we’re presenting a special summer series of the best and the brightest new voices in investigative reporting and audio production. Ariel Ritchin at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has taken…

Bail or Bust

by Ariel Ritchin

July 12, 2016

Hundreds of people in cities throughout the US have been arrested for participating in Black Lives Matter protests. In Chicago, a judge set one protestor’s bail at $350,000. Bail is the money or pledge of…

Bit of an Edge

by Ashley Cleek

November 3, 2015

Jury Duty. It’s one of the pillars of our democratic society. If you are charged with a crime, a jury of your peers will determine your innocence or your guilt. But who selects the jurors?…

Articles

Reporter’s Notebook: Tipping the Scales

by Ashley Cleek

May 7, 2015

You know how when you learn a new word, all of a sudden, you see it everywhere? Reporting’s like that. In January, I started looking into the election of judges in Alabama. I was reporting…

Tipping the Scales

by Ashley Cleek

May 5, 2015

Are aggressive, expensive elections corrupting the court system? Or are they evidence of a strong democracy? The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can prohibit judges from openly asking for money to pay for their judicial campaigns.

“Judges are not politicians,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, “even when they come to the bench by way of the ballot.”

Articles

Blinding Us With Science: The Trouble with Forensic Sciences

by Anna-Maria Marshall

October 7, 2014

Twenty odd years ago in Mississippi, Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of an 84-year-old woman. There were no fingerprints linking Howard to the scene of the crime,…

Felony Factory

by Angela Caputo

February 12, 2013

You’ve just been arrested, charged with a felony and can’t afford to pay your bail, let alone hire a lawyer. You know you have the right to a trial by jury or judge, but what happens when the legal system is too busy to see you? Public defenders in Cook County, Illinois, struggle to fill the gap at one of the busiest court complexes in the nation.

court

In-Studio: Prosecuting Discretion

by Life of the Law

A Fair Fight for a Fair Court: Election Year Special – Part 1

by Nancy Mullane

Bail or Bust – Transcript

by Ariel Ritchin

Bail or Bust

by Ariel Ritchin

Bit of an Edge

by Ashley Cleek

Reporter’s Notebook: Tipping the Scales

by Ashley Cleek

Tipping the Scales

by Ashley Cleek

Blinding Us With Science: The Trouble with Forensic Sciences

by Anna-Maria Marshall

Felony Factory

by Angela Caputo

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