Frequently asked questions
Q: How is this project associated with WVU?
Where Doubt Remains is produced and reported by a graduate journalism student at WVU. Work on the initial phase, which consisted of three cases, was supervised by a committee of graduate faculty members at WVU's Perley-Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
Q: How were the cases chosen?
Each case was hand-selected on the strength of the convicted's innocence claim after it was evaluated for a loosely defined set of red-flags such as the absence of physical evidence, allegations of police or prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense work, etc. There was no magic formula in determining which cases would be investigated.
Q: So, are these people innocent?
Despite all the work done, it's impossible to say that any of the defendant's in these cases are absolutely innocent. But then, that was never the goal of Where Doubt Remains. We've worked hard to highlight the doubt in these cases and raise serious questions about the accuracy of their convictions. On the other hand, we've also worked hard to point out the prosecution's case, too. We hope that after reading their stories, you'll be able to weight the issues and decide for yourself.
Q: Why did you choose only sex-crime cases?
That wasn't by design, but by chance.
Q: Why did you name the victims in these cases? Isn't that unethical?
The Society of Professional Journalists says that we should "be cautious" when identifying victims of sex crimes. Decisions in that area weren't undertaken lightly and were made in consultation with School of Journalism faculty. Ultimately, the name of one victim, whose rape isn't in question, was not named. Though it is possible to figure out who she is from the context of the stories, nothing is lost by not explicitly revealing her identity. In other cases, victims were named because they, as adults, testified in open court, have been accused of lying to jurors and the police and in some cases, have actually recanted their allegations. The complexity of the stories that they were involved in would make it nearly impossible to not use their names.
Web site issues
Q: Some of the images, like the logo, look funny. The backgrounds are weird.
Make sure you've upgraded to latest version of your internet browser. Older versions of Internet Explorer, for example, will have this problem.
Q: I registered to comment on one section of the site, but when I try to log-in on another section, it says I don't have permission to comment.
This is a quirk in our content-management system. If you log-out completely, and then log back in, your permissions should be reset and you should be able to comment. If you still run into trouble, contact us at help@wheredoubtremains.com.
Q: On some pages, I'm told I need Flash or that I need a missing plug-in. What's that?
Many of the stories on Where Doubt Remains use Flash, a special piece of software for delivering multimedia content. You'll need a free Flash player to access that content.
Where Doubt Remains is produced and reported by a graduate journalism student at WVU. Work on the initial phase, which consisted of three cases, was supervised by a committee of graduate faculty members at WVU's Perley-Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
Q: How were the cases chosen?
Each case was hand-selected on the strength of the convicted's innocence claim after it was evaluated for a loosely defined set of red-flags such as the absence of physical evidence, allegations of police or prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense work, etc. There was no magic formula in determining which cases would be investigated.
Q: So, are these people innocent?
Despite all the work done, it's impossible to say that any of the defendant's in these cases are absolutely innocent. But then, that was never the goal of Where Doubt Remains. We've worked hard to highlight the doubt in these cases and raise serious questions about the accuracy of their convictions. On the other hand, we've also worked hard to point out the prosecution's case, too. We hope that after reading their stories, you'll be able to weight the issues and decide for yourself.
Q: Why did you choose only sex-crime cases?
That wasn't by design, but by chance.
Q: Why did you name the victims in these cases? Isn't that unethical?
The Society of Professional Journalists says that we should "be cautious" when identifying victims of sex crimes. Decisions in that area weren't undertaken lightly and were made in consultation with School of Journalism faculty. Ultimately, the name of one victim, whose rape isn't in question, was not named. Though it is possible to figure out who she is from the context of the stories, nothing is lost by not explicitly revealing her identity. In other cases, victims were named because they, as adults, testified in open court, have been accused of lying to jurors and the police and in some cases, have actually recanted their allegations. The complexity of the stories that they were involved in would make it nearly impossible to not use their names.
Web site issues
Q: Some of the images, like the logo, look funny. The backgrounds are weird.
Make sure you've upgraded to latest version of your internet browser. Older versions of Internet Explorer, for example, will have this problem.
Q: I registered to comment on one section of the site, but when I try to log-in on another section, it says I don't have permission to comment.
This is a quirk in our content-management system. If you log-out completely, and then log back in, your permissions should be reset and you should be able to comment. If you still run into trouble, contact us at help@wheredoubtremains.com.
Q: On some pages, I'm told I need Flash or that I need a missing plug-in. What's that?
Many of the stories on Where Doubt Remains use Flash, a special piece of software for delivering multimedia content. You'll need a free Flash player to access that content.
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