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Leora Smith

Leora Smith was a senior research fellow at ProPublica.

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Leora Smith was a senior research fellow at ProPublica. She graduated from Harvard Law School in May 2017. Leora has worked with and provided legal support to the Bronx Defenders, the Service Employees International Union, Amnesty International Canada and other international human rights organizations. Her work can be found on the labor law blog On Labor, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s "The Fifth Estate" and in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.

Blood Will Tell

How a Dubious Forensic Science Spread Like a Virus

From his basement in upstate New York, Herbert MacDonell launched modern bloodstain-pattern analysis, persuading judge after judge of its reliability. Then he trained hundreds of others. But what if they’re getting it wrong?

by Leora Smith,

How an Unproven Forensic Science Spread Through the Criminal Justice System

Bloodstain-pattern analysis has been accepted as reliable evidence by appellate courts in one state after another with little or no examination of its scientific accuracy.

by Leora Smith,

Governors and Federal Agencies Are Blocking Nearly 1,300 Accounts on Facebook and Twitter

We filed public-records requests with all 50 governors and 22 federal agencies. Here’s what we found.

by Leora Smith and Derek Kravitz,

Here’s How to Find Out If Your Elected Officials Are Blocking Constituents on Facebook and Twitter

And here’s why that’s a story.

by Derek Kravitz, Terry Parris Jr. and Leora Smith,

Here Are the White House Visitor Records the Trump Administration Didn’t Want You to See

White House Visitor Records the Trump Administration Didn’t Want You to See

by Derek Kravitz, Leora Smith, Al Shaw and Sisi Wei,

The White House Says It Doesn’t Keep a List of Mar-a-Lago Visitors. Experts and Visitors Are Skeptical.

Seven members and guests of Mar-a-Lago say the U.S. Secret Service checks names of visitors.

by Leora Smith and Derek Kravitz,