Brain-Damaged Man Wins New Trial In Two-Decades-Old Killing
Richard Lapointe confessed in 1989 that he stabbed, raped and killed his wife's 88-year-old grandmother two years earlier. But in the 23 years since, experts in criminal justice have come to better...
View ArticleSpinal Surgery Company To Give Tissue Proceeds To Charity
When a California company developed a product to be used in spinal fusion surgeries, the firm's president said he knew it faced a new "ethical dilemma," even noting a recent NPR news investigation...
View ArticleDismissed Case Raises Questions On Shaken Baby Diagnosis
When San Francisco prosecutors dismissed charges against Kristian Aspelin in early December, it became just the latest case to raise questions about how shaken baby syndrome is diagnosed. Aspelin, who...
View ArticleWhy A Young Man Died In A Nursing Home, A State Away From His Mom
Zach Sayne was 25 when he died earlier this month at the place that had been his home for 15 years — a children's nursing home in Alabama.But that was too far away, 200 miles too far, for his mother in...
View ArticleKoop Turned Surgeon General's Office Into Mighty Education Platform
Transcript AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: C. Everett Koop was the most outspoken and some would argue the most influential of all U.S. surgeon generals. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The correct plural form of the...
View ArticleLaw Targets Sexual Violence On College Campuses
When President Obama signs an updated version of the Violence Against Women Act on Thursday afternoon, the law will include new requirements for how colleges and universities handle allegations of...
View ArticleJustice In The Segregated South: A New Look At An Old Killing
This story contains language that some may find offensive.In the segregated South in 1965, John Queen was about as insignificant as a man could be. He was black, elderly and paralyzed. His legs had...
View ArticleTurning Up The Heat On Civil Rights-Era Cold Cases
Six years ago, the FBI took on a challenge: To review what it called cold-case killings from the civil rights era. The investigation into 112 cases from the 1950s and 1960s is winding down, and civil...
View ArticleMastermind Of 'Body Stealing' Scheme Dies
Dr. Michael Mastromarino died Sunday after battling liver and bone cancer. He was 49.Mastromarino pleaded guilty to "body stealing." In 2008, he was sentenced to up to 58 years in prison.But he...
View ArticleShooting Unfairly Links Violence With Mental Illness — Again
With the Army's disclosure that Army Spc. Ivan Lopez was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before he went on a shooting rampage Wednesday, there were once again questions about whether...
View ArticleCampus Rape Reports Are Up, And Assaults Aren't The Only Reason
The number of "forcible rapes" that get reported at four-year colleges increased 49 percent between 2008 and 2012. That's the finding of an analysis by NPR's Investigative Unit of data from the...
View ArticleUnpaid Court Fees Land The Poor In 21st Century Debtors' Prisons
Debtors' prisons were outlawed in the United States back before the Civil War. But an NPR state-by-state survey found that people still get sent to jail for unpaid court fines and fees. Copyright 2014...
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Big Fees For The Big Easy's Poorest Defendants
In the next installment of an NPR investigation, Joseph Shapiro goes to New Orleans to look at the ways poor people are charged for their public defender in court. Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more,...
View ArticleSupreme Court Ruling Not Enough To Prevent Debtors Prisons
Debtors prisons were outlawed in the United States nearly 200 years ago. And more than 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear: Judges cannot send people to jail just because they are too...
View ArticleCourt Fees Drive Many Poor Defendants Underground
The use of fines and fees charged to criminal defendants has exploded. An NPR investigation has found people who can't afford those charges can go to jail for not paying. Hundreds of thousands are...
View ArticleMichigan's High Court Limits The Fees Billed To Defendants
Transcript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: And I'm Melissa Block. Michigan's top court, today, moved to put limits on what...
View ArticleNational Data Confirm Cases Of Restraint And Seclusion In Public Schools
The practice of secluding or restraining children when they get agitated has long been a controversial practice in public schools. Now, new data show that it's more common than previously understood,...
View ArticleIn Ferguson, Court Fines And Fees Fuel Anger
To understand some of the distrust of police that has fueled protests in Ferguson, Mo., consider this: In 2013, the municipal court in Ferguson — a city of 21,135 people — issued 32,975 arrest warrants...
View ArticleFerguson's Plan To Cut Back On Court Fees Could Inspire Change
Here are just a few of the fees the city court in Ferguson, Mo., can bill you for:There's a fee to plead guilty. That's $12.You even pay for your own arrest warrant."The sheriff can charge you for the...
View ArticleSpinal Surgery Company To Give Tissue Proceeds To Charity
When a California company developed a product to be used in spinal fusion surgeries, the firm's president said he knew it faced a new "ethical dilemma," even noting a recent NPR news investigation...
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