Criminal Backstories explains the history behind criminal cases that are in the news: exonerations, executions, retrials, parole decisions and other turning points. Many of these cases are decades old, and the original coverage is hard to find. We gather the record into one readable page.
Every fact is sourced. Each statement links to a court opinion, official record or published news report. Court records come first, and we prefer them wherever they exist.
Claims are attributed. Allegations, arguments and disputed accounts are credited to the person or party making them: the prosecution, the defense, a witness, the victim's family.
The crime is described from the court record. We include details the courts relied on for a conviction or sentence, in the record's own language, and leave out details that serve no finding.
We protect private people. Victims are named as they appear in the public record. Family members, witnesses and others connected to a case are not given their own pages, and living relatives are referred to by relationship rather than by name. We never publish anyone's current address.
A person reviews every page. Pages are researched and drafted with the help of AI tools, and each one is reviewed by an editor before it is published.
All defendants are presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of law. Charges and allegations described on this site are not proof of guilt.