Stories about wrongful convictions open our eyes to systemic injustices in the U.S. court system. Maurice Chammah, a staff writer at The Marshall Project, compiles his recommended longreads within the genre.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The Car-Crash Conspiracy
“High-speed accidents, crooked lawyers, and poor people desperate for cash—it was the kind of scheme that could have been cooked up only in the Big Easy.”
Posted inFeature
By All Measures
Our problems are too vast, our distance from them too great. How do we navigate our derangement of scale?
Posted inReading List
From Identity to Inspiration: A Reading List on Why We Run
Six thoughtful reads on why writers run.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Crypto Maniacs and the Torture Townhouse
“How two men charged with an outrageous kidnapping scheme introduced a new kind of crime to the city.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Spaghetti Underground
“The MTA’s new redesign of the New York City subway map is the latest of many attempts to capture the sprawling network on paper.”
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Rukmini Callimachi, Annie Waldman and Joshua Kaplan, Jesmyn Ward, Hillery Stone, and Alice Driver.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Kamala Harris, Mass Incarceration and Me
“Many progressives mistrust her for her past as a prosecutor. As an ex-convict — and also the son of a crime victim — I can tell you it’s not that simple.”
Posted inFeature
Best of 2025: All Our Number Five Story Picks
Every story we selected for the number five slot in our weekly newsletter, in a handy digest.
