A two-year investigation finds a criminal justice system slowed by chronic delays, rotating judges, attorney shortages, and limited courtroom space
“Simply put, our project would still be just a wishful idea had it not been for the Investigative Editing Corps, its project editor Dianna Hunt and Report for America which first sent us Julia Shanahan, the project’s champion and principal reporter as an RFA corps member. While we punch above our weight, collectively the Rapp News and Foothills Forum are forever stretched just to cover the basics. IEC provided an irreplaceable editing resource to tackle a big, challenging story. Dianna’s guidance, expertise and good-natured patience were essential to navigating the long journey from idea to publication.”
-Dennis Brack
President | Rappahannock Media
“Rural news operations like ours are always challenged by limited resources. We hit the jackpot when IEC agreed to help us and assigned Dianna Hunt to serve as primary editor for our project. It gave us the extra bandwidth to tackle a complex, time-consuming investigation that required extensive public records requests and data analysis. Throughout, Dianna was the consummate professional. She’s strategic, patient, persistent and has unerring journalistic judgment.”
-Andy Alexander
Foothills Forum Board Chair
(Foothills Forum is the nonprofit journalism partner to the for-profit Rappahannock News)
Editor: Dianna Hunt
Dianna Hunt is the deputy director of Investigative Editing Corps. She is a longtime investigative reporter and editor who directed and edited the Pulitzer Prize-finalist breaking news coverage of Hurricane Harvey while metro editor of the Houston Chronicle. She has also worked for The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and other publications. Most recently, she served as national editor at ICT, formerly Indian Country Today. She served three terms on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors and is currently on the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. She is now a contributing editor for ICT and for Public Health Watch.
Top image: Deputy Chris Ubben, shown here last September, describes an incident on Nov. 2, 2020, when he was attacked with a knife at the Quickie Mart by Keith Alther. Later he said, “The grace of God,” was the only reason he had not been injured seriously during the altercation. (Luke Christopher/Rappahannock Media)