The Marshall Project

A feature, produced in a collaboration between The New York Times and The Marshall Project, about Harvard University’s eleventh-hour flip-flop on its acceptance of ex-convict Michelle Jones to its doctoral program in history. Jones, who spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of her four-year-old son, conceived non-consensually when she was 14, became a stellar academic and published scholar of American History while incarcerated. She was set to attend Harvard this fall, but after her acceptance, two professors questioned whether she had adequately portrayed her crime in her application — something that was not required. Jones will be attending NYU instead.

A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.

I grew up idolizing my brother. Then he killed a man.

America’s prison population is rapidly graying. So what happens to the growing pool of older, ailing inmates incarcerated in institutions that weren’t designed to serve as nursing homes?

A clerical error freed a man from prison 88 years early—and then sent him back five years and eight months later after he found a stable job and started a family. This story was co-produced by Matter.

An informant comes forward and confesses that he gave false testimony that may have led to an execution of an innocent man. “Webb, who was facing a lengthy sentence, said he asked Jackson, ‘What’s going to be my deal?’ and Jackson said, ‘If you help me, that robbery will disappear … even if you’re convicted now, I can get it off of you later.'”