The End of Roe
Missouri Could Become the First State to Overturn a Total Abortion Ban
A ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution has a groundswell of support. Its success hinges on turnout.
Jordan Smith
Jordan Smith is a state and national award-winning investigative journalist based in Kansas City, Missouri. She has covered the criminal legal system for more than 25 years and, during that time, has developed a reputation as a resourceful and dogged reporter with a talent for analyzing complex social and legal issues. She spent more than 20 years reporting in Texas where she was regarded as one of the best investigative reporters in the state. Her investigative work in wrongful conviction cases has helped to exonerate six people. A longtime staff writer for the Austin Chronicle, her work has also appeared in The Nation, the Crime Report, and the Texas Observer, among other places.
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Texas Lawmakers’ Unprecedented Actions Halt Robert Roberson’s Execution — For Now
Following the state Supreme Court’s last-minute intervention, Roberson is expected to testify next week at a legislative hearing on Texas’s junk science law.
Texas Is About to Execute Robert Roberson for a Crime That Never Happened
State courts refused to review Roberson’s case, clearing the way for his execution based on the junk science of shaken baby syndrome.
Trials of Richard Glossip
The Supreme Court May Force Oklahoma to Kill Richard Glossip
At oral arguments Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito appeared indifferent to the state AG’s insistence that Glossip’s conviction is unconstitutional.
Missouri Kills Marcellus Williams Over Objections From Prosecutor and Victim’s Family
Attorney General Andrew Bailey scuttled a deal that would have spared Williams’s life, and the courts and governor failed to intervene to stop the execution.
A Prosecutor Wanted to Spare Marcellus Williams’s Life. Missouri’s Attorney General Got in the Way.
After the AG's meddling, a trial court judge rejected Williams's innocence claim — even though prosecutors mishandled the murder weapon.
Shaken Baby Syndrome Is Junk Science. Texas Plans to Be First to Execute Someone for It.
A decade after Texas passed landmark legislation to address flawed forensics, the courts have refused to apply it as intended.
His Best Chance to Get Off Death Row Was DNA on the Murder Weapon, but Prosecutors “Contaminated” the Evidence
The prosecutor’s actions two decades ago doomed Marcellus Williams’s shot at exoneration. Now the AG won’t let his life be spared.
A Prosecutor Admits His Office’s Incompetence Cut Off an Innocent Man’s Path to Exoneration
A Missouri prosecutor was set to argue that Marcellus Williams had been wrongly convicted. New evidence that prosecutors had mishandled the murder weapon got in the way.
The End of Roe
By Vowing to Codify Roe, Kamala Harris Ensures Continued Government Meddling in Abortion Care
Reproductive justice advocates warn that stopping at enshrining Roe’s protections would allow abortion bans and restrictions to flourish.