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Megan Rose
I am a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at ProPublica. Please reach out with tips and documents.
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What I Cover
My reporting involves exposing how regular Americans are harmed by abuses in the criminal justice system, the military and, recently, the regulation of health care. I investigate complex issues and spend significant time getting to know the people affected to tell in-depth, nuanced stories.
My Background
I’ve been a reporter for more than 20 years (my byline was formerly Megan McCloskey). I joined ProPublica in 2013 after working as a correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places around the world for Stars and Stripes and others. I won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting with two colleagues for a series examining how Navy and Marine Corps leadership failed to heed warnings and implement reforms before several fatal accidents.
I have also examined the billions wasted by the U.S. government in Afghanistan and how the Pentagon was failing to find missing service members from past wars.
A series I wrote exposed how rather than working to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants, prosecutors instead pushed a little-known plea deal that left innocent men with records.
My work has resulted in several falsely convicted men clearing their records, congressional inquiries and high-level leadership changes.
I graduated from the University of Missouri and received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Award, a White House Correspondents’ Association award and the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence, and I was twice a finalist for the Livingston Award.
Baltimore to Pay Largest Settlement in City History — $9 Million — to Man Wrongfully Convicted of Murder
James Owens, who was featured in a ProPublica investigation last year, sued police detectives for the alleged misconduct that landed him in prison for 21 years. Prosecutors had tried to make him take a controversial plea deal.
by Megan Rose,
Video: This Obscure Plea Deal Offers Freedom to the Wrongfully Convicted at a Huge Cost
A confounding case in Baltimore shows just how far prosecutors will go to keep a win on the books — even at the expense of an innocent man.
by Ranjani Chakraborty and Megan Rose,
Baltimore Judge Tosses Alford Plea, Rebuking Prosecutor
Demetrius Smith has long maintained he pleaded guilty to a shooting he did not commit. Now, over the prosecutor's objections, his conviction has been set aside.
by Megan Rose,
Innocent But Still Guilty
Inmates are sometimes offered freedom in exchange for pleading guilty to a crime they probably didn’t commit. It’s a bad deal.
by Megan Rose,
Baltimore Prosecutor Admits He Was Wrong to Block Request to Alter Alford Plea
A ProPublica story last month pointed out that the prosecutor had given up his right to veto changes to the unusual plea deal. Demetrius Smith, who was wrongfully convicted of murder when he agreed to the deal, will get a new hearing.
by Megan Rose,
A Dubious Arrest, a Compromised Prosecutor, a Tainted Plea: How One Murder Case Exposes a Broken System
One innocent man’s odyssey through the justice system shows the cascading, and enduring, effects of a bad conviction.
by Megan Rose,
Nevada Pardons Wrongfully Convicted Man Featured in Our Story
The pardon clears Fred Steese’s name after state prosecutors had pushed him into an arcane plea deal even though a judge had declared he was innocent. “I’m not a felon anymore,” Steese said.
by Megan Rose,
Vegas Judge Featured in ProPublica Story Reprimanded for Ethics Violations
Judge William Kephart, who was repeatedly criticized for misconduct as a prosecutor and put at least one innocent person in prison, has been censured for a lapse on the bench.
by Megan Rose,
Senator: Someone Needs to Be Fired Over Wasted $65 Million Plane
Sen. Chuck Grassley tells the Defense secretary “if heads don’t roll nothing changes.” The plane, which never flew a mission in Afghanistan, is part of a pattern of billions in military waste documented by ProPublica in 2015.
by Megan Rose,
What Does an Innocent Man Have to Do to Go Free? Plead Guilty.
A case in Baltimore — in which two men were convicted of the same murder and cleared by DNA 20 years later — shows how far prosecutors will go to preserve a conviction.
by Megan Rose,