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.
True Crime
Posted inNonfiction
A Sketch Artist, a Grieving Mother, and An Unsolved Mystery
They set out to solve a cold case. The more they dug, the more terrifying the truth became.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Crime Victim Who’s Obsessed with True Crime Shows
“Before the shooting, watching true crime shows was a diversion. Afterward, it is no longer simply a genre to me.”
Posted inQuotes
Detective Fitbit
Can Fitbit data help to convict the alleged perpetrator of a brutal murder?
Posted inNonfiction
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom
“We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”Â
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Reimagining Harper Lee’s Lost True Crime Novel: An Interview with Casey Cep
“Somewhere along the way it became very clear to me that I was writing the book she never would.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The amateur sleuth who searched for a body — and found one
A car wreck found at the bottom of Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota brought the search for a missing young mother, Olivia Lone Bear, to an end. But the discovery was made not by the police, but a mostly-female volunteer team of indigenous sleuths and activists led by Lissa Yellowbird-Chase.
Posted inArts & Culture, Crime, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Story
True Crime and the Trash Balance
True crime has a reputation for being trashy, but a recent renaissance has it tipping into advocacy.