Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice

As if to strike a chord during the increasingly disharmonious Knight Ridder sale talks, the Mercury News struck back with a novel concept.

Journalism.

Done well in five parts, "Tainted Trials,  Stolen Justice," began Sunday and unfolds through today. Fredric Tulsky, the project's lead reporter, lays out a three-year Mercury News investigation into the fabric of the Santa Clara County criminal justice system.

Defendants wrongly convicted.  Innocents in prison.  Courts failing to follow basic procedure. Key evidence overlooked. Incompetent judges.

Of 727 criminal jury trail cases examined, fully 261 were found to have some "questionable conduct."

It's a piece of journalism that reminds us why the Knight Ridder sale question looms so large, and why daily journalism, even though it is practiced by companies with old-fogy brands, matters.

Only a local daily newspaper has the staff resources and the legacy mandate to do such a series. Some local TV and radio stations do exemplary work from time to time, but few have ever devoted the kind of resources to a project such as this.

Working with Tulsky were nine staffers, including data analysts, research librarians, graphic artists, designers, editors and writers. We don't know how much of their time they put into the project.

But let's guess that staff time and the pages of newsprint the project required cost $400,000. Reasonable guess. 

Guess where that $400,000 is in the how-to-cut-costs presentations to bidders by Knight Ridder and its banker representatives. Guess where that $400,000 is on the spreadsheets of most of the private equity bidders.

Gone.

Investigative journalism sells no ads.  It can't be proven to spur readership.

It is the core, though, of why we value newspapers. They are local.  They have a responsiblity in and to the community. Exercising that responsibility means challenging the powerful institutions that determine our lives, such as the justice system. Given the increasingly complexity of those systems -- and the increasing efforts of many of those running them to cloak them in secrecy -- the only response is to put good, smart people on the watch. And to give them the time and tools to do their work.

So salute the Mercury News for an investment well-made. And remember the example as we wind through a couple more months talking about Knight Ridder's fate. It may not seem like it, but in the long run, we may be talking about the fate of all of us.