The Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale aims to enhance the power of collaborative public-interest journalism. Rooted in the idea that accountability-centered reporting is critical to a thriving democracy, we seek to deepen coverage of criminal justice, climate change, migration, mental health, and other themes, through experimentation with team-driven methods, pursuit of public records, new forms of multimedia storytelling, and more.
Case Study
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Featured Work
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Felony murder is a legal doctrine that empowers prosecutors to charge people for murder even if everyone agrees they had no intention of killing anyone. For decades, felony murder has been a black box—no one knows how many people around the country are incarcerated, often for life, under these laws. We spent more than 1000 collaborative hours unearthing and analyzing more than 10,000 cases.
Felony Murder Reporting Project
An IRLY Collaboration
Sentenced to Life for an Accident Miles Away
By Sarah Stillman
Across seven years, Yale students worked with community members to document a wrongful conviction crisis in New Haven, stemming from law-enforcement corruption in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. What would a reckoning look like for the city?
An IRLY Collaboration
These three pieces by English 480 students explore, in very different ways, the moral and mental-health challenges posed by the climate crisis.
A Mental Health Crisis is Burning Across the American West
By Jacob Stern ‘19
Fire, Fire Everywhere
By Nancy Walecki ‘21
How Far Would You Go To Stop Climate Change?
By Jack McCordick ‘22
A growing group of laborers is trailing hurricanes and wildfires the way farmworkers follow crops, contracting for big disaster-recovery firms, and facing exploitation, injury, and death. The Yale Investigative Reporting Lab created an original database to document this little-known toll of the climate crisis, and to hold disaster-recovery firms and the government to account for workers’ safety.
The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters
By Sarah Stillman
Lawmakers, Top Judges Push to Expand Mental Health Courts
By Eliza Fawcett ‘19
Published in New York Focus
A Friend’s Death to Mourn, and to Serve Time for
By Michaela Markels ‘24
Published in Bolts and Alabama Reflector
A Chicago Cop Killed Someone in a Car Accident. They Blamed a 20-Year-Old Instead.
By Caleb Dunson ‘24
Published in The Appeal and Chicago Reader
He's Served ⅓ of His Life in Prison for Someone Else Killing His Cousin; That's Felony Murder
By Madison Hahamy ‘24
Published in the South Bend Tribune
Pa. Supreme Court to Weigh Life Sentences for Felony Murder
By Miranda Jeyaretnam ‘23 and Peter Hall
Published in Public Source
William Davis's Conviction Is Not Wrongful. But is the Legal Doctrine Behind It Just?
By Elena DeBre ‘23
Published in Mississippi Today
How Missouri's 'Felony Murder' Law Traps People for Defending Themselves
By Thomas Birmingham ‘23
Published in The Appeal
Prosecutors in These States Can Review Sentences They Deem Extreme. Few Do.
By Matt Nadel ‘21 and Charlie Lee ‘20
Published in The Marshall Project and the Times-Picayune
Why Is This Man Still in Prison?
By Ko Lyn Cheang ‘21
Published in the New Haven Independent
By Teigist Taye ‘22
Published in the Yale Daily News
By Laura Glesby ‘21
Published in the New Haven Independent
By Keerthana Annamaneni ‘20
Published in The New Journal
By Ram Vishwanathan ‘21
Published in the New Haven Independent
Trump Wants Thousands of Migrant Children to Represent Themselves in Court
By Maggie Grether
Published in The Nation
As Corporate Landlords Spread, a Mold Epidemic Takes Root
By Thomas Birmingham ‘23
Published in In These Times
122 Immigrants Face the U.S. Death Penalty. Only 2 of Those Sentences Honor International Law.
By Matt Nadel ‘21
Published in The Boston Review
By Tyler Jager ‘22
Published in The New Journal
The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters
By Sarah Stillman
Published in The New Yorker
A Mental Health Crisis is Burning Across the American West
By Jacob Stern ‘19
Published in The Atlantic
By Nancy Walecki ‘21
Published in Cosmopolitan
By Jack McCordick ‘22
Published in In These Times
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