The National Association of Black Journalists is honoring The Marshall Project with an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award.
The award is for Digital Media - Online Project: News for The Marshall Project’s coverage of homicides in Mississippi prisons. The yearlong joint investigation, with TMP staff reporters Daja E. Henry and Caleb Bedillion collaborating with Mississippi Today, Clarion Ledger, Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link, produced stories about dozens of killings that went unpunished. Over a decade, at least 42 people were killed in these prisons. Just six people had been convicted in those deaths.
In one case, a prosecutor forgot to serve an indictment until a reporter on the team called about the homicide. In response to our investigation, a Mississippi lawmaker introduced a bill to provide greater oversight of prison deaths, and Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain announced that he would reopen investigations of nearly 50 homicide cases, as well as deaths ruled undetermined.
“The NABJ award is a great honor,” said Raghu Vadarevu, deputy managing editor for local investigations and engagement at The Marshall Project. “Our coverage in local communities across the country is shining a light on a justice system that desperately needs it.”
The Marshall Project has locally based journalists in St. Louis, Missouri, Jackson, Mississippi, and Cleveland, Ohio.