What I Cover
I write about issues like prosecutorial misconduct, unreliable expert witness testimony, junk forensic science and official indifference to innocence and error. Each of my stories involves extensive time on the ground, getting to know the people and places I’m chronicling. I strive to illuminate complex issues with rigorous reporting and engaging, fact-driven storytelling.
My Background
I’m a reporter at ProPublica and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. My work has also been anthologized in “Best American Magazine Writing,” “Best American Crime Reporting,” “Best American Nonrequired Reading” and “Next Wave: America’s New Generation of Great Literary Journalists.”
“False Witness,” my ProPublica-Times investigation into jailhouse informants, received a National Magazine Award for reporting in 2020. It was also recognized with the Hillman Prize, the IRE Award, the Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism and the Molly National Journalism Prize.
My first book, “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast” (Knopf, 2026), grew out of this reporting. Through the story of one prolific con artist, I examine how false testimony helped send a man to death row — and what happens when the criminal justice system rewards the people most adept at manipulating the truth.
Before joining ProPublica and the Times in 2017, I was a staff writer at Texas Monthly. A 2010 investigation of mine — about a wrongly convicted man who was sent to Texas’ death row — was credited with helping him win his freedom after 18 years behind bars.
In 2014, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awarded me the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.
I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband and two children.
