On March 15, 2003, Marquise Huspeth died in a vacant parking lot after emerging from his car brandishing a cell phone that he pointed like a gun. He had been struck in the back by eight bullets fired by two white police officers. One year later, four of the paper's reporters examined the dramatic event from different perspectives in an impressive and detailed team report. Don Walker focused on the details of the shooting. Teddy Allen interviewed the victim's mother. Keri Kirby talked with one of the officers. And Alisa Stingley explored Justice Department enforcement data obtained by TRAC to document how the federal government in Louisiana and the United States almost never prosecutes law enforcement officers in cases of alleged police brutality. Shortly after the publication of the paper's special report, federal prosecutors announced that, faithful to this tradition, neither of the officers would be brought to trial.
* Shreveport Times -- Paying a High Cost.
March 14, 2004, PDF file
