Jessica S. Henry

Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, has said that a decision about charging Trump is imminent. David Walter Banks/Getty Images

As charges loom over Trump, prosecutors come under fire – a criminal justice expert explains what’s at stake

Most prosecutors are elected in uncontested races across the country. But there are signs that the posts are becoming political hotbeds, placing more pressure on the criminal justice system.
New York police respond to a shooting in Brooklyn in April 2021, amid a rise in shootings that year. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Crime is on the ballot – and voters are choosing whether prosecutors with reform agendas are the ones who can best bring law, order and justice

A new wave of prosecutors, known as progressives, say that public safety can exist with policies like eliminating cash bail for people charged with low-level offenses.
Annie Dookhan, center, pictured with her family in a Boston courtroom Nov. 22, 2013, after she pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence. Dookhan was a state chemist. David L. Ryan/AP/The Boston Globe

How corruption in forensic science is harming the criminal justice system

Forensic science is only as good as the equipment and the people who calibrate it, some high-profile cases indicate. Thousands of innocent people have been harmed. Here’s how.

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