A New York inmate owes his freedom
in part to a journalist who would not let go.
For 20 years, Christine Young of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., has been bothered by a murder case she learned about as a student in New York City. She never believed that the police had the evidence to convict Lebrew Jones in the Manhattan killing of Micki Hall, a young woman who worked as a prostitute.
Young, a former award-winning television reporter, doggedly questioned the evidence, the tactics, the witnesses police missed and the connections to other killings that police failed to link.
The newspaper compiled the story and the mountain of evidence it had into a
remarkable multimedia presentation. The project features audio and video interviews with key witnesses and the questionable confessions that Jones offered police years ago, and even explains through interactive graphics where Jones might have been at the time of the slaying. It also allows readers to navigate a time line that helps explain why Jones might not have killed Hall.
Last week, 22 years after he was convicted,
Jones left prison. The parole board released him after his first interview, something that experts say is unheard of. He is not a free man, at least not yet.
Young, who discovered that much of the physical evidence in the case had been destroyed or misplaced, was there to greet Jones upon his release. After she launched her investigation, the
DA reopened the case and the Innocence Project called for the reversal of his conviction, the Times Herald-Record reported.
When I checked in with Young a year ago, she told me that journalists should campaign for truth. "Our role is to carefully investigate and then to report the facts, and to expose attempts to hide or distort the facts. I became outraged by the absence of any investigation and the complete lack of evidence pointing to Jones' guilt," Young said. "When I found Micki Hall's mother, Lois, she immediately said she never believed Jones was the killer, and is so haunted by it that she can't even bury Micki's ashes."
I interviewed Young, who left the paper in August and is on a Knight-Bagehot journalism fellowship at Columbia University until May 2010, about the newest events in the case and to find out more about why she chose to cover this story for so long. You can read her edited responses below.
Al Tompkins: Jones is now on parole. Is there any ongoing effort to clear him? I assume his criminal conviction sticks, despite this parole.Christine Young: Lebrew is on parole, yes, and there is an ongoing effort to clear him. I am 100 percent certain of his innocence. If the district attorney didn't also believe he was innocent, Lebrew would not have been released on parole because of the heinous nature of the crime. The DA allowed it to happen, which is unheard of for such a vicious and brutal murder.
To be clear, are you convinced that Jones is innocent or just that there was not enough evidence to find him guilty?
Young: Having a conviction overturned is a very difficult process. You need new evidence; essentially, the burden of proof is reversed. No matter how sloppy or corrupt the first investigation was, the jury's decision is sacrosanct. I'm hoping the new incoming DA, Cyrus Vance Jr., will be offended by what happened to Lebrew and will facilitate a reversal.
Why has this case nagged you for two decades? Can you shed it now, even though his name has not been cleared?
Young: The case nagged at me because I had a sickening feeling an innocent man was in prison. There was never any evidence Lebrew Jones killed Micki Hall, just a nonsensical statement by a frightened, intimidated, meek little man who had tried to help the police and just wanted to go home. Can I let it go now? I'm not sure. I have suspicions about who killed Micki Hall and got away with it.
Have you been in touch with Micki Hall's family since Jones' release?
Young: Yes, I've been in touch with Micki's mother, Lois Hall. She also spoke to Lebrew by phone Friday. She is beyond thrilled at his release and wanted to be there but couldn't afford the airfare. She also wrote a letter in support of his release.
How are you feeling these days about the role of journalism?
Young: It is the foundation of our freedom. It is under-appreciated and shamefully undervalued, even by the leaders in our profession, and that breaks my heart. As for journalism and justice, the world is filled with injustice, and the joy of being a journalist is being blessed with the opportunity to right it, even once.
I have shown your multimedia page to many, many seminar groups. How important was your online multimedia display to the public support behind Jones' case?
Young: I'm getting all the credit for this, but a lot more should be made of the commitment by the Times Herald-Record. This story cost the newspaper a small fortune, and Derek Osenenko, the executive editor, and Joe Vanderhoof, the publisher, could have spiked it and didn't, just because they wanted to do the right thing. How great is that? How rare is that in a for-profit business?
I have no idea how much of a role the multimedia presentation played in Lebrew's release, but I'm very proud of it. Much of the credit for that goes to John Pertel, the multimedia editor who gave it everything he had.
And if it weren't for Chris Mele, the investigations editor, Lebrew's story would still be a pile of dog-eared papers in a beat-up laundry basket. I kid you not.
Other links from the Times Herald-Record Christine Young's piece is an excellent example of multimedia storytelling...
