Rick Tulsky was the co-founder of Injustice Watch and served as editorial director until he retired in 2020. Rick developed a sense of the power of exposing social wrongs as a young reporter at the Jackson, Ms., Clarion Ledger; and has retained his dedication to that work at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News and the Center for Investigative Reporting. His work has received more than two dozen national awards including a Pulitzer Prize, and has been a nominated finalist in two other years. Rick is a lawyer, and has been both a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University and an Alicia Patterson fellow. He is the former president and longtime board member of the national organization Investigative Reporters and Editor. Most recently, Rick was the founding director of Medill Watchdog, a program at Northwestern University’s journalism school to undertake collaborative projects on systemic problems while mentoring students in such work.
After a federal jury awarded $6.2 million to a Chicago man who contend his confession to rape had been the product of torture by Chicago police, civil rights attorneys challenge the city’s vigorous efforts to fight the case.
Kansas man Lamonte McIntyre spent 23 years in prison, convicted of a double murder, before that conviction was overturned in 2017 based on evidence of widespread misconduct that led to a wrongful conviction. More than two years later, the Kansas attorney general has agreed to acknowledge McIntyre’s innocence — opening the door for McIntyre to be compensated and have his conviction expunged.
Thirteen Dallas police officers have been disciplined following a department investigation into their Facebook posts after they were included in the Plain View Project database of social media activity by law enforcement officers in eight locales that could endanger public trust in policing.
In October, a federal magistrate ruled that justice demanded new trial of woman who has spent 14 years in Texas prisons for murdering toddler. After a Wednesday hearing, the magistrate rejected a bid by Texas officials to keep the prisoner locked up while they appeal the grant of a new trial.
Rosa Estela Olvera Jimenez has spent 17 years in Texas prisons, accused of murdering a toddler. Amid doubts about her guilt, a federal magistrate on Tuesday heard the state argue why she should not be immediately released.
An Illinois Appellate Court panel on Monday reinstated a lawsuit brought by a private investigator who contended he was defamed by a lawyers, a journalist, and a police union official, among others, who have contended that he framed an innocent man of murder.
In rare act, state commission removes downstate Illinois judge, finding he deceived police investigating a murder and then testified falsely to the disciplinary boards.
A new eyewitness, unearthed police dispatch tapes, and allegations of misconduct by notorious police commander Glenn Evans cast doubt on a Chicago man’s conviction for a 1997 murder.
Hours after issuing a press release announcing new rules that appeared to prohibit prisoners from being sent news articles printed off the internet, a department spokesman announced the new regulation would be rewritten to clarify that digital news articles would not be banned.
Faced with lawsuits over past bans on books and correspondence, the Illinois Department of Corrections enacted a new regulation. But attorneys for prisoners immediately blasted the new rules, which ban anything that is downloaded from the internet, as “draconian and unconstitutional.”