Thread by @MauriceChammah

I spent 3 years shadowing an investigator, as she sought to save the life of a death row prisoner — by telling the story of that life, from a Great Migration childhood to a Rikers adolescence.

A story of trauma, mercy, and the mysteries of violence:
themarshallproject.org/2023/03/02/dea…

The backstory:

While reporting out my book on the death penalty, I learned about this secretive guild of "mitigation specialists."

They played a major role in the punishment’s decline, by leading jurors and prosecutors from punitiveness to mercy.
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554923/l…

To mount a defense for James Bernard Belcher, Sara Baldwin spent days and days knocking on doors and gathering gov't records to build a portrait of his early traumas and much more.

We carefully worked out an ethical way for me to watch the process.

Belcher raped and killed Jennifer Embry in 1996.

Despite his remorse, he couldn’t explain it.

Baldwin found Belcher had been surrounded by rape + death at Rikers at age 16.

Decades later, Kalief Browder would suffer similar conditions, and his own death would play a big role in campaigns to close Rikers.

themarshallproject.org/2019/03/22/ins…

Baldwin’s goal was not to “excuse” Belcher’s crime, but to give jurors enough information to see him as a human being, rather than the monster portrayed by the prosecution.

To see whether it worked, you’ll have to read the story:
themarshallproject.org/2023/03/02/dea…

Many Americans see mass incarceration as a problem.

But if you describe a punishment that sounds insufficient, you can expect eyerolls and scoffs.

My colleague @Jamiles wrote on how we must confront violence more directly: themarshallproject.org/2019/12/12/can…

But: How?

Many on death row suffered horrible things as children. You may remember Lisa Montgomery, who was executed by the Trump admin despite a severe mental illness and abuse-filled childhood.

How do we know the specifics? Mitigation specialists.

themarshallproject.org/2021/01/08/wha…

Mitigation specialists uncover the personal traumas and policy failures that help us make sense of violence.

They can help us think more richly about why people hurt each other — and how we can deal with the fallout w/o creating more trauma.

themarshallproject.org/2017/07/13/we-…

Many on death row went to prisons first as teens, where instead of rehabilitation they got fight clubs, solitary confinement, and neglect that made them more likely to be violent.

That's, in a way, on all of us.

Here’s me + @keribla on that dynamic:
themarshallproject.org/2022/02/01/the…

We’ve all seen the movies in which the “bad guy” suffered as a kid.

Here’s the @parul_sehgal at @NewYorker on the rise of the Trauma Plot:

newyorker.com/magazine/2022/…

In the justice system, those stories move decision-makers towards mercy. But it’s a LOT of work to dig them up.

I’d be grateful if you’d read and share my new @MarshallProj story.

Thank you to James Belcher and Sara Baldwin for letting me see this process, to @AkibaSolomon for editing, and @susanchira (and @shapiromichael!) for helping me out of a writing rut.

themarshallproject.org/2023/03/02/dea…

This is a story about trauma, and I benefited a LOT from the @DartCenter Ochberg Fellowship last summer. Thanks to everyone I met there, esp. @elananewman and Bruce Shapiro.

Deadline just passed but they do these yearly: dartcenter.org/ochberg-fellow…

These stunning photos were taken by @OctavioJones and @agneslopez. Collage by @_melanie_garcia. The story’s look and feel come from the great @celinafang.

I want to leave you with an image I find haunting.

Earline Floyd had to be cross-examined about her most intimate failings as a mother — to save her son from the death penalty.

But she couldn't watch other testimony. So she sat like this alone outside the courtroom for hours.

Thanks for reading. This reporting took almost 4 years from conception to publication, and I spent weeks traveling: 3 trips to Florida, and 1 to NYC.

If you like work like this, please consider a donation to @MarshallProj.

themarshallproject.org/donate/primary