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Cary Aspinwall is a staff writer for The Marshall Project. Previously, she was an investigative reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where she reported on the impact of pre-trial incarceration and money bail on women and children in Texas and deaths in police custody involving excessive force and medical negligence. She won the Gerald Loeb Award for reporting on a Texas company's history of deadly natural gas explosions and is a past Pulitzer finalist for her work exposing flaws in Oklahoma's execution process. She is a co-founder of The Frontier, a nonprofit devoted to investigative journalism in Oklahoma.
Email caspinwall@themarshallproject.org
Twitter @caryaspinwall
An illustration of a man balancing on a tightrope, high above a building surrounded with barbed wire.
Feature October 25, 2022
Fetterman and Oz Battle Over Pennsylvania’s Felony Murder Law
Does opposing mandatory life without parole make a U.S. Senate candidate “pro-murderer”?
By Abbie VanSickle and Cary Aspinwall
A woman with light-toned skin and a gray T-shirt is seated while hugging a young girl with a medium-toned skin as a young girl with light-toned skin plays on a patio.
Feature September 1, 2022
They Lost Their Pregnancies. Then Prosecutors Sent Them to Prison.
Dozens of women who used drugs while pregnant have faced criminal charges. Experts expect even more cases now that Roe has been overturned.
By Cary Aspinwall, Brianna Bailey, and Amy Yurkanin
A White woman with long brown hair wears an orange shirt.
Analysis September 1, 2022
How We Tracked Prosecutions for Pregnancy Loss
Where we got our data and how we analyzed it.
By Cary Aspinwall and Andrew Rodriguez Calderón
Feature December 16, 2021
Her Baby Died After Hurricane Katrina. Was It a Crime?
An expansive definition of murder in Louisiana leaves many behind bars forever.
By Cary Aspinwall, Lea Skene and Ilica Mahajan
Feature November 11, 2021
He Got a Life Sentence When He Was 22 — For Robbery
Black men are most affected by Florida’s two-strikes law.
By Dan Sullivan, Cary Aspinwall and Weihua Li
Feature November 11, 2021
Two Strikes and You’re in Prison Forever
Why Florida leads the nation in people serving life without chance of parole.
By Cary Aspinwall, Weihua Li and Dan Sullivan
Protests and vigils were held nationwide in 2020 for Elijah McClain, who died after paramedics injected him with the sedative ketamine during an encounter with police.
Feature September 22, 2021
Doing No Harm
Criminal charges against paramedics in Elijah McClain’s death raise questions about when emergency medical responders should be held accountable for fatalities in police custody.
By Beth Schwartzapfel and Cary Aspinwall
Feature May 22, 2021
Life Without Parole Is Replacing the Death Penalty — But the Legal Defense System Hasn’t Kept Up
Just ask a Dallas woman who spent a year in jail without talking to a lawyer.
By Cary Aspinwall
Jennifer Gross holds photos of herself with fiancé Robert Vermett, who is incarcerated at Michigan’s Kinross Correctional Facility and recovering from COVID-19.
Coronavirus December 21, 2020
Moving People—and Coronavirus—From Prison to Prison
As COVID-19 infections soar, prisoners and corrections officers worry that transferring people between facilities is causing outbreaks.
By Cary Aspinwall and Ed White
People march in the street to protest the death of Elijah McClain on July 25, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. On August 24, 2019 McClain was walking home when he was forcibly detained by three Aurora police officers and was injected with ketamine after officers requested assistance from the Aurora Fire Rescue. McClain suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital that night and died six days later.
News December 18, 2020
Colorado Tries New Way To Punish Rogue Cops
Individual officers can’t claim ‘qualified immunity’ in excessive force cases, but may not end up paying damages out of their own pockets.
By Cary Aspinwall and Simone Weichselbaum
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