The Society for News Design honored ProPublica with a bronze medal in this year’s Best of Digital Design competition.
Recognized in the commissioned illustration category, “The Scandal That Never Happened,” by Anat Rubin, examined a Louisiana appeals court of all-white judges that systematically ignored thousands of wrongful conviction claims from prisoners, most of them Black, while collecting at least $1.7 million for the unread appeals. A suicide note from Jerrold Peterson, a high-level court official who developed a system integral for the rapid dispensing of these claims, helped to bring this system to light.
The art direction from Alex Bandoni and Lisa Larson-Walker sought to reconcile the dramatic significance of Peterson’s note with the thousands of petitions from prisoners. The opening scrolling illustration by James Lee Chiahan unleashes a torrent of pages representing the many lives interrupted by this unjust system, then cascades into the pivotal scene of Peterson’s desk and the single whistle-blowing note. Illustrated section breaks of free-falling pages punctuate the unfolding story, and larger scenic illustrations establish the scenes of court and incarceration crucial to the narrative. The story’s epilogue focuses on Nathan Brown, a former prisoner whose claim had been initially ignored and who was later exonerated, and is accompanied by an illustration of Brown’s portrait emerging from a pile of countless other claims that were also neglected.
Additionally, ProPublica received 16 Awards of Excellence:
- “Las Vegas Needs to Save Water. It Won’t Find it in Lawns.” — Story Page Design: Environment & Science
- “America’s Biggest Museums Fail to Return Native American Human Remains” — Design: Investigative and Elements: Audio designs
- “Someone Tell Me What to Do” — Design: Investigative
- “The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States” — InfoGfx: Environment & Science
- “How Forest Loss Can Unleash the Next Pandemic” — InfoGfx: Health
- “How School Board Meetings Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country” — Elements: Video design
- “Body Cameras Were Sold as a Tool of Police Reform. Ten Years Later, Most of the Footage Is Kept From Public View.” — Elements: Data visualization
- “Wisconsin’s Legislative Maps Are Bizarre, but Are They Illegal?” — Elements: Data visualization
- “This Pharmacist Said Prisoners Wouldn’t Feel Pain During Lethal Injection. Then Some Shook and Gasped for Air.” — Illustration: Commissioned illustration (single)
- “The Night Doctrine” — Platform: Video stories design
- “Nursing Home Inspect” – Prod: Redesigned site, page or app
- “Nonprofit Explorer” — Prod: Redesigned site, page or app
- Jeff Frankl — Portfolio: Information Graphics (individual)
- Peter DiCampo — Portfolio: Art Direction/Illustration (individual)
- ProPublica graphics team — Portfolio: Combination (staff or team)
See all the winners.
