My Best Backup: A Tiny Love Story in the New York Times
The New York Times published a Tiny Love Story I submitted in December.
'That’s a bloodbath': How a federal program kills wildlife for private interests
Wildlife Services officials say that with the exception of invasive species, employees only kill wild animals that attack livestock or cause damage. But data obtained by NPR indicates that's not true. The program often kills native wildlife that didn’t kill or injure livestock.
“Governor, don’t kill me for the heck of it”: Oklahoma prisoner asks for clemency
Hours before he was executed, I interviewed Emmanuel Littlejohn in his last conversation with the press.
Unmarked cars and secret orders: How a pharmacy prepared drugs for Texas’ executions
The state of Texas, blocked from purchasing lethal injection drugs by major pharmaceutical companies that refuse to participate in executions, bought them instead from an in-state compounding pharmacy with a history of more than a dozen safety and cleanliness violations, NPR has learned. Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply in suburban San Antonio produced injectable pentobarbital from 2019 through at least late 2023 for Texas to use in executions, records from the state Department of Crimin...
Limited testing of raw milk for bird flu leaves safety questions unanswered
I went to Texas — ground zero for the bird flu spreading across the U.S. — to buy raw milk and test it for the flu. Here's what happened.
States botched more executions of Black prisoners. Experts think they know why
Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. I spoke with race scholars and execution workers who collectively witnessed more than 20 executions across the country to understand the mechanics of how that may be happening.
Concrete structures meant to protect Baltimore bridge appear unchanged for decades
Seconds before the container ship Dali hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last week and tore it down, killing six construction workers, it sailed past a structure designed to prevent that kind of disaster.
Although Maryland has invested in repairing the Key Bridge, records reviewed by NPR indicate the dolphins have not been substantially changed since they were built in the 1970s.
Although Maryland has invested in repairing the Key Bridge, records reviewed by NPR indicate the dolphins have not been substantially changed since they were built in the 1970s.
'We got workers in the water': Audio reveals new details of Baltimore bridge rescue
NPR's Investigations Team analyzed more than 1,000 radio messages exchanged between first responders from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, Baltimore City Fire Department and Baltimore City Police on the day of the collapse, downloaded from Broadcastify.com. The communications, most of which have not been published by any other outlet, reveal new details about the response from police and firefighters and highlight what those first responders did and did not know about the construction crew before and after the collapse.
Alabama executes man by nitrogen gas for the first time in the U.S.
For NPR, I reported on the nitrogen gas execution from Atmore, Alabama. We delivered a feature length radio story about the historic event the day after the execution, which can be heard here.
Kenneth Smith could be the first person executed with nitrogen gas. He spoke with NPR
Kenneth Smith Smith rarely speaks with journalists. But he called me from the prison last year on Dec. 7, where he's being housed in Atmore, Ala. He discussed what it was like to experience the failed execution, and how he felt about the prospect of undergoing another attempt, this time by nitrogen gas, in January.
Families of executed prisoners want death penalty tapes made public
NPR spoke to four families of people whose executions were recorded by the Virginia Department of Corrections. All said that Corrections had not informed them of the tapes, and that they wanted the state to release the recordings publicly so they could know what happened to their relatives as they died.
Alabama's upcoming gas execution could harm witnesses and violate religious liberty
The state of Alabama plans to execute a prisoner in January using nitrogen hypoxia, a process so novel and untested that state officials required the man's spiritual adviser to sign a waiver that said he could be exposed to the gas. The acknowledgment form, exclusively obtained by NPR, also reveals that the spiritual adviser, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is required to stay at least three feet away from the prisoner, which may violate both their religious liberties.
The American Whale
Collaborated with NPR member station in New Orleans, WWNO, on this podcast episode by Carlyle Calhoun for Sea Change, to go in depth on the investigation we published into why more action isn't being taken by the U.S. to protect severely endangered whales in the Gulf of Mexico.
Only 51 of these U.S. whales remain. Little has been done to prevent their extinction
My investigation used analysis of public documents and AIS data to show how little has been done by NOAA to prevent the extinction of Rice’s whales by limiting their know man made risks.
Vaccines are still tested with horseshoe crab blood. The industry is finally changing
After NPR published my investigation into the national horseshoe crab bleeding industry, changes were made nationally and locally to allow companies to have easier access to synthetic alternatives to horseshoe crab blood, a key ingredient used to test vaccines and medical devices for contamination, and limit the horseshoe crab harvest.
Coastal biomedical labs are bleeding more horseshoe crabs with little accountability
As the horseshoe crab bleeding industry has expanded, coast-wide regulation has been limited and the companies have become increasingly secretive. Records I obtained indicate that in some states, fishermen paid by the bleeding companies have handled crabs in ways that research has shown to cause harm or have violated harvest laws without punishment. Meanwhile, the process of approving the alternative in the U.S. has stalled even as the number of birds in the sky has plummeted.
Virginia hid execution files from the public. Here's what they don't want you to see
NPR exclusively published a selection of documents that I managed to photograph at the library before most of them became restricted by the Department of Corrections. The records, which detail responsibilities of staff, include candid photos taken of the prisoners before their deaths and even show the keys to Virginia's electric chair, illustrate how executions were conducted in the state that carried out more than any other.
When train crashes leak harmful chemicals, small town firefighters can be vulnerable
Accidents that result in the release of hazardous materials are rare, but when trains do crash, the consequences can be serious. Most of the recent ones that caused evacuations have happened near small communities, my colleague Nick McMillan and I found. Local firefighters who respond are uniquely vulnerable to the effects. But across the country, they are often under-prepared to handle the chemicals when they come off the tracks.
NPR uncovered secret execution tapes from Virginia. More remain hidden
My investigation for NPR uncovered four never-before-released tapes recorded behind the scenes during executions. They revealed Virginia neglected to record key evidence during what was considered one of the state's worst executions, and staff appeared unprepared for some of the jobs they were tasked to do in the death chamber.
Carrying out executions took a secret toll on workers — then changed their politics
I spoke with 26 current and former workers who were collectively involved with more than 200 executions across 17 states and the federal death chamber. They were executioners, lawyers, correctional officers, prison spokespeople, wardens, corrections leaders, a researcher, a doctor, an engineer, a journalist and a nurse. Many shared their names and stories publicly for the first time.
And though most of them reported suffering serious mental and physical repercussions, only one person said they received any psychological support from the government to help them cope. The experience was enough to shift many of their perspectives on capital punishment. No one I spoke with whose work required them to witness executions in Virginia, Nevada, Florida, California, Ohio, South Carolina, Arizona, Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, South Dakota or Indiana expressed support for the death penalty afterward, NPR found.
And though most of them reported suffering serious mental and physical repercussions, only one person said they received any psychological support from the government to help them cope. The experience was enough to shift many of their perspectives on capital punishment. No one I spoke with whose work required them to witness executions in Virginia, Nevada, Florida, California, Ohio, South Carolina, Arizona, Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, South Dakota or Indiana expressed support for the death penalty afterward, NPR found.
The death chamber doctor’s dilemma: A physician in South Carolina breaks his silence
This story was recognized as the best profile published in South Carolina in 2022 by the South Carolina Press Association.
This was only the second time in recent history that a doctor involved in executions talks in detail about his execution role with a member of the press.
This was only the second time in recent history that a doctor involved in executions talks in detail about his execution role with a member of the press.
Laws require language support for students. Many SC districts are ‘exploitative’ instead
Dozens of South Carolina school districts provide unequal educational opportunities to students because of where they’re from, Lucas Smolcic Larson and I showed, after collecting data from an unprecedented survey we sent to all S.C. districts and speaking to graduates. Many districts openly admitted to using bilingual students as translators instead of hiring professionals to interpret for children whose parents don’t speak English. That’s against the law. We worked with a local Spanish language outlet to publish this article in Spanish as well as English, in order to reach as many bilingual readers as possible.
The US military trained him. Then he helped murder Berta Cáceres
My investigation for The Guardian revealed how a Honduran man who would later be convicted of helping murder environmental defender Berta Cáceres in 2016 was trained and shaped by West Point. The unprecedented look at West Point's little-known international training program raises questions about the schooling provided by the institution to generations of Central American soldiers for more than 200 years, some of whom later became involved with human rights abuses.
They executed people for the state of South Carolina. For some, it nearly destroyed them.
This story was part of a series that won a 2021 Investigative Reporters and Editor’s Finalist award.
The repercussions of execution work for staff have often been left out of conversations about the death penalty, until now. Over five months, I spoke with 10 people who helped administer executions in South Carolina. The closer they and their families were to the act of killing, the more the men said their jobs caused long-term harm. This investigative feature story represents one of the most detailed, intimate portrayals of execution work in America ever published.
The repercussions of execution work for staff have often been left out of conversations about the death penalty, until now. Over five months, I spoke with 10 people who helped administer executions in South Carolina. The closer they and their families were to the act of killing, the more the men said their jobs caused long-term harm. This investigative feature story represents one of the most detailed, intimate portrayals of execution work in America ever published.
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