Denver Post reporters Susan Greene and Miles Moffeit have won a 2007 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award for their series “Trashing the Truth.”
The awards are made annually by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
The four-part series, which appeared in The Post in July, examined the problems created in verifying convictions and making legal appeals when authorities discard and destroy evidence in criminal cases.
Starting with local cases in Denver and Colorado Springs, Greene and Moffeit documented instances of negligent evidence destruction nationwide.
Gary Fields of the Wall Street Journal also won an award for “Tattered Justice,” which examined the separate and unequal nature of justice for 1 million American Indians living on reservations.
“What this shows more than anything else is that despite the economic constraints on journalism today, fantastic work is still being done by dedicated reporters and editors,” Steve Handelman, director of the center, said in a statement.
Each winner will receive a $1,000 prize, which the John Jay College of Criminal Justice will present at an awards luncheon.
