Vol. 3 Issue 32
Revisit our Reporting on Robert Johnson's Wrongful Conviction
Our reporting from May 2020 in the Daily Beast on Robert Johnson's wrongful conviction, which led to him being granted a new evidentiary hearing. Now, that hearing has finally been scheduled for this summer.
In May 2020, we published a year-long investigation into the wrongful conviction of Robert Johnson that unearthed substantial evidence in the decades-old case. Robert was just 16 years old when Chicago Detective James O’Brien, who has scores of torture allegations and is a known associate of Jon Burge, took him from his grandmother’s home and later arrested him for murder. Robert Johnson has maintained his innocence and has sought to have his conviction overturned multiple times.
In July 2020, two months after our investigation was published, an Illinois Appellate Court reversed the dismissal of his post-conviction petition and sent his case to circuit court for an evidentiary hearing. Now, four years later, that hearing has been granted. This hearing will give Robert and his lawyers the opportunity to present evidence supporting his innocence.
We encourage you to join the reporting team - Alison Flowers, Erisa Apantaku, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Diana Akmakjian, Ellen Glover and Jonah Newman - on August 5th & 6th in Courtroom 207 at the Cook County Courthouse (26th and California) to witness this next step.
Data Transparency Project - NEW from Sam Stecklow
For the Wisconsin Examiner, reporter Sam Stecklow writes with an update on our legal battle in Wisconsin to gain access to police records. Wisconsin remains one of just 14 states refusing to release the state’s police employment and certification data. Alongside The Badger Project, we’re suing to overturn this denial.
This update is part of our nationwide push for police data transparency. In partnership with a host of newsrooms, nonprofits, and media organizations alongside Big Local News, we are pushing to obtain crucial data around officer certification and employment history nationwide. Since the coalition began making yearly record requests in 2019, 36 states have fully released their certification data while 14 have issued full denials. Four of the states that initially released the full request for records have since shifted policy and now reject it. Those who deny access often argue that releasing this information would endanger officer safety.
Read the article →
You Didn’t See Nothin Receives Peabody Award
Members of the You Didn’t See Nothin team recently traveled to Los Angeles to celebrate and receive their 2024 Peabody Award. Respected for its integrity and revered for its standards of excellence, the Peabody is an honor like no other for television, podcast/radio, and streaming media. Chosen each year by a diverse Board of Jurors through unanimous vote, Peabody Awards are given in the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast/radio, arts, children’s and youth, and public service programming.
Congratulations to this award-winning team: Yohance Lacour, Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis, Alison Flowers, Steven Jackson, Phil Dmochowski, Taka Yasuzawa, Alex Sugiura, Jamie Kalven, and Josh Bloch for USG Audio.
Yohance recently joined NPR’s Fresh Air to talk about the podcast with Tonya Mosley. Listen to the episode here.
Tea and Reparations on International Day in Support of Torture Survivors
Join us at Pilsen Community Books on Wednesday, June 26 at 7:00pm in recognition of International Day in Support of Torture Survivors. The evening will host a discussion on two publications, Invitation to Tea and Remaking the Exceptional, which was co-edited by Invisible Institute’s Audrey Petty and features original research from Maira Khwaja, our executive editor of the Chicago Police Torture Archive.
The companion publication to one of Hyperallergic's top exhibitions of 2022, Remaking the Exceptional highlights connections between policing and incarceration in Chicago and the human rights violations of the Global War on Terror through the voices of torture survivors and activists, while also celebrating the struggle for justice and reparations. Invitation to Tea compiles 48 tea recipes, stories, and traditions, one for each of the countries that have had citizens extralegally held at the US military prison in Guantánamo. Audrey will be in conversation with survivor LaTanya Jenifor-Sublett and authors Amber Ginsburg and Aaron Hughes.
Learn more →
Cook County Jail’s deadliest year in decades reveals repeated lapses and failed oversight
In the latest investigation from Injustice Watch, Carlos Ballesteros reports on deaths at the Cook County Jail.
Eighteen people died while incarcerated at the jail in 2023, the most deaths at the jail since 2013, when the daily population was twice as high. It marked the jail’s highest mortality rate since at least 1995, according to an Injustice Watch analysis of public records and historical jail death figures compiled by University of Illinois researchers.
A review of thousands of pages of internal jail records, police investigations, and autopsy reports found inadequate supervision and medical care preceded at least half of those deaths, almost all of which have gone unpunished.
Read the investigation →
