This week for BuzzFeed News, Freda Moon and Tim Stelloh shed new light on a decades-old case of corruption, murder, and mystery. Read that and these other great stories from around the web.
A Murder at La Casa Green — BuzzFeed News
A four-part series chronicling the lives of Ronald Taylor and George Gould, who were jailed for murdering a New Haven bodega owner in 1993. They were exonerated thanks to the efforts of a cop turned private investigator, only to be ordered back to prison — along with the investigator himself. And in the middle of it all were the victim's troubled son and a heroin addict whose changing testimony has been the most mysterious part of a case that has baffled and infuriated for over 20 years. Read it at BuzzFeed News.
Illustration by Rob Dobi for BuzzFeed News
The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison — The New York Times Magazine
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah pens a stunning profile of the literary legend and examines her unyielding resistance to the "unbearable whiteness" of the publishing industry. "She makes black life — regular, quotidian black life, the kind that doesn’t sell out concert halls or sports stadiums — complex, fantastic and heroic, despite its devaluation." Read it at The New York Times Magazine.
Photograph by Katy Grannan for The New York Times
Upon Further Review — ProPublica/ The New Orleans Advocate/ Sports Illustrated
Darren Sharper is a former NFL safety who helped lead the New Orleans Saints to their first Superbowl victory. He is also an accused serial rapist. In a deep and devastating investigation, T. Christian Miller, Ryan Gabrielson, Ramon Antonio Vargas, and John Simerman explore how the failures of authorities across multiple states allowed Sharper to allegedly drug and assault women without consequence for years. Read it at ProPublica, The New Orleans Advocate, or Sports Illustrated.
Photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier for Sports Illustrated
The Price of a Life — The New Yorker
John Restivo spent nearly two decades in prison for the rape and murder of a Long Island teenager before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2003. Ariel Levy asks: How do you rightfully compensate someone who lost their freedom? Or can you? Read it at The New Yorker.
Photograph by Christaan Felber for The New Yorker
