Introducing “Paper Trail”
5/7/20265 min
Investigative journalism can change the world. Host and reporter Jessica Lussenhop tells the story of how she learned that for herself.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJessica Lussenhop· Host0:00
Investigative journalism is powerful. And here's how I know. Many years ago, I was working as a reporter at a tiny newspaper in Missouri, and I got this crazy tip about a man in prison. He'd been convicted of armed robbery when he was in his 20s and sentenced, but then the government made a huge mistake. They never actually sent him to prison. They just forgot about him. By the time they realized their mistake, 13 years had passed, and he'd become this pretty upstanding guy, wife and kids. He didn't even like to swear. Even the victim of the robbery told me this guy shouldn't have to go to prison after all this time. But instead of dropping it, they arrested him in front of his family and locked him up. I was already a pretty cynical person at the time, and this story was not helping. But I published the story anyway, and the case wound up getting a bunch of attention. A while later, he gets a new court hearing. I walk in. His wife is there. She's all dressed up. And I'm like, "This is going to suck. This is just going to be some kind of pointless procedural thing where they're just gonna confirm he's completely screwed." Instead,