A.C. Thompson is a staff reporter with ProPublica. His stories, which often examine the criminal justice system, have helped lead to the exoneration of two innocent San Francisco men sentenced to life in prison and the prosecution of seven New Orleans police officers. In addition to working as a print and web journalist, Thompson has reported extensively for television, serving as a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline. His life was fictionalized on the HBO show “Treme.”
Inside Room 101 at Emerald Hills, a covert campaign was under way in the fall of 2008. Potentially lethal bed sores were spreading across Joan’s body, and workers were trying to improvise help.
On Sept. 30, 2008, an employee at the Emerald Hills assisted living facility in Auburn, Calif., made an entry in a company computer log: “pressure ulcer/wound.” Joan, who had spent just 19 days in the facility, had developed the wound on her foot.
When the ambulance crew arrived, about 8:20 p.m., Joan Boice was in the TV lounge, face-down on the carpet. Her head had struck the floor with some velocity; bruises were forming on her forehead and both cheeks. It appeared she’d lost her balance and fallen out of a chair.
Joan Boice needed help. Lots of it. Her physician had tallied the damage: Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis. For Joan, an 81-year-old former schoolteacher, simply getting from her couch to the bathroom required the aid of a walker or wheelchair.
An Amarillo man whose conviction for sexually assaulting a child was reversed after experts questioned forensic evidence used against him, pleads guilty to a reduced charge.
In a setback for federal prosecutors, an appellate court tosses the convictions of two former cops imprisoned in connection with the killing of Henry Glover.
After Katrina, New Orleans police officers circulated orders authorizing them to shoot looters and "take back the city," but it remains unclear who issued them.
California Gov. Jerry Brown today commuted the sentence of Shirley Ree Smith, a 51-year-old woman whose 1997 conviction for shaking her infant grandson to death has drawn national attention.
The case of an Amarillo man, released from prison last week, reflects a larger controversy over the reliability of scientific evidence in child death cases.
The fate of Shirley Ree Smith, convicted of shaking to death her 7-week-old grandson, is in the hands of California's governor. Child deaths can pose special problems for forensic pathologists. Unfortunately, many forensic pathologists aren't prepared to deal with the complexity of such cases.
An investigation by ProPublica and PBS "Frontline" finds the system to examine unusual fatalities often fails seniors, leaving them vulnerable to neglect, abuse and even murder.
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