Maurice Chammah

My Background

I live in Austin, Texas, where I was a musician before getting into journalism. I look for stories that confront how we as a society respond to crime and how we might do it better. I often write about the worst days of peoples' lives, but some of my favorite work has been about music behind bars and the many ways people in prison look out for each other.

Since joining The Marshall Project in 2014, I've hosted two podcasts, “The Last 12 Weeks" (with Serial Productions and The New York Times) and "Just Say You're Sorry," and written a book, “Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty.” I was on a team that won a 2021 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and my feature on mitigation specialists won awards from the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma and the Online Journalism Association.

I’m also writing a book about my father's family history called "Arab/Jew.”