Pete Shellem, Journalist Who Freed Four People from Prison Through Reporting, Dead at 49
UPDATE: Here’s the NYT obit.
Very sad news today from the Patriot News in Harrisburg: Pete Shellem, a longtime reporter who specialized in investigating questionable convictions, died over the weekend. A little about some of his non-innocence work:
From 1994 to 1996, Shellem headed a series of stories about justice being sold for campaign contributions in the office of then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr.
The investigation resurrected a stalled federal probe. Preate, facing potential racketeering charges, eventually resigned and pleaded guilty to mail-fraud charges.
Very rare reporter, especially in an age of dwindling newsrooms and paltry sums given to investigative projects.
Read the American Journalism Review profile about Shellem here.
And here’s a message from Steve Drizin, from the Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University:
It is with great sadness that I inform you all of the death of Pete Shellem. Pete Shellem was one of the finest investigative journalists I have ever encountered. Writing for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, in the middle of Pennsylvania, Pete’s work led to at least four exonerations. He was at his best when he wrote about the problem of false confessions, a difficult issue for many in the public to understand. His work (and I mean his work not the work of lawyers) led to the exoneration of Barry Laughman, a mentally limited man who had confessed to murdering and raping his aunt. Shellem tracked down the DNA evidence to the refrigerator of a lab analyst at Penn State who had moved abroad; his writing pressured the judges and prosecutors to agree to testing which ultimately exonerated Laughman. Shellem’s brilliant work in Laughman is featured in True Stories of False Confessions (co-edited by Rob Warden and I). In another case, not mentioned below, his investigative work helped to clear William Kelly, another man who falsely confessed before Kelly could be convicted. Both of these men were of low intelligence and had only a modicum of support for them in the community. They would still be in prison today if not for Pete’s work. Pete often called me to discuss his investigations and frequently used me as a source as I began to develop some expertise in the area of false confessions. I recall these conversations well. Pete was on fire, firing questions at me that revealed not only a tremendous knowledge of police investigations and police misconduct, but also a tenacity that almost made me feel sorry for those who he would soon take to task for their roles in these wrongful convictions. I can honestly say he taught me much more than I taught him. It’s a terribly sad day for his loved ones but also a sad day for the criminal justice system in Central Pennsylvania and for the Innocence Movement as a whole.
If you’ve something more to say about Mr. Shellem — comments, condolences, thoughts — let me know: matt [dot] stroud [at] yahoo [dot] com
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Patrick LaForge, Alex Howard. Alex Howard said: RIP RT @palafo Pete Shellem, 49, Harrisburg reporter whose reporting took down a PA Atty General & freed the innocent. http://bit.ly/2haDfl [...]
So few journalists devote the extremely time-consuming effort to investigating apparent wrongful convictions. In fact, journalists have become part of the problem. I will address this failing of journalists from time to time in my T/S blog. Meanwhile, I hope you rest in peace on your laurels, Mr. Shellem. You have done journalism, and the larger society it is supposed to serve, proud.
Why are journalists the problem?
Journalists are part of the problem because they ignore almost all arrests. When they do write about arrests and then follow the prosecution, journalists rarely do so skeptically, and frequently never talk to the defense lawyer or the defendant. Most journalists are ignorant of the red flags that might signify a wrongful arrest/conviction. Journalists treat most prosecutors as good guys who never use bad judgment or fall victim to vindictivness. I’ve written about this problem in depth for the superb public policy magazine Miller-McCune.
In response to another comment. See in context »Here’s that story for those who want to read it:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/legal_affairs/innocent-until-reported-guilty-675.print